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Ursus Peregrinus
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2013
- Location
- Sol IIIA
Come and rest, fellow traveler, for I have a tale to tell. Long ago, in the days between when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas…
Wait. That’s Conan. *cough* Apologies, starting over.
After a break of over a year due to illness, I am actually able to type again (hurrah, working hands). Though I am rusty as Procol Harem’s Conquistador, I do want to start writing and telling stories again. If you’re game, if you can PM me, then maybe you can hire…
No, not the A-Team. Just a writing partner with a good deal of mileage on him, an overactive imagination and a broad range of interests.
Oh, and before I begin: I would take it as a kindness if you would reply via PM, I can’t guarantee I’ll remember to check this thread until the next time I bump it.
<<<** STYLE **>>>
I like to think of myself as a fairly decent writer. I’m quite literate, and while my grammar can at times be atrocious (those poor commas, so overworked) I try not to hit send without reading it over and making sense of whatever maddened scrawl I’ve bashed out. Hopefully this request thread will be sufficient evidence of my faculties, but I can always send you a writing sample if desired.
Regarding post length, I am flexible. I will never send less than a paragraph, and rarely less than 3. If the mood takes me and the good mojo is flowing, then the sky is the limit (assuming I don’t notice I’m overdoing it when I proofread, of course). Simply put, I will write what I feel the story needs, and I do try to make every post I write a good one. Quality over quantity, but on a good day I can do both.
As far as turnaround time, well, I am not what I used to be. Heh, what is that old engineer’s joke? You can have good, cheap or fast - pick two. Do not get me wrong, on a rare occasion, if the story is gripping my right by the throat (or the short and curlies) then a same-day reply CAN happen. On the other hand, I am relearning how to type and I do not want to push myself. Shall we say one or two replies a week, three at the outside? A two to three day turnaround is what I will be aiming for, and if you don’t hear from me in a week, remind me and I will reply post-haste and be effusive in my apologies.
Medium? Well I’m more of a large, but that’s neither here nor there. I prefer to write via email, PM and thread (in that order) but I am willing to brainstorm and chat on instant messengers if you wish. Yahoo doesn’t exist on OSX yosemite (and Trillian looks godawful) but I still have Skype (and it is still as reliable as a poorly maintained Renault) and can fire it up if needed.
Now then, to business.
<<<** CONTENT **>>>
Ahh, the good stuff. Story. Take a nice deep breath and taste that plot.
Mmmmm… Delicious.
*ahem* Is there anything better than stories? I love stories. They are my vice, my addiction, my salvation and my obsession. I love to brainstorm and worldbuild. I love coming up with new characters and plotlines. What kind of stories, I hear no one asking?
All kinds.
I have written a little of everything, from High Fantasy to Space Opera and everything in between. Historical romances, Western tales, cyberpunk, noir detective stories and urban fantasy. From fanfiction to romance, from drama to action, from intrigue to smut, I have had fun with them all. Really, if you can name it, I can probably come up with SOMETHING for a storyline. Throw me a suggestion, an idea, a plot seed and I will gleefully run away with it, cackling in delight. Or look a little further down and see some of my own ideas, plot seeds and concepts.
But what of character? Well, I tend to be honest and state that I’m an asshole and… oh, CHARACTERS. Riiiiiight. Well, I usually write heterosexual male characters, but I can and have enjoyed writing women, men, gay/bi/straight/etc. My tendency is towards the dominant side of a d/s relationship if that’s a story element, but I can play sub too if need be. I do enjoy nonhuman characters, whether they be vampires (ones with menace, not the tinkly-wee watered down variety), werecritters (wolves, cats, bears, etc), dragons, monsters, aliens and whatever else has struck my fancy at the time.
The naughtiness, lad! what about the naughtiness? Alright, since you insist: my interests and kinks are just as broad as my taste in plot and character. A full list is here - F-List but in brief:
I love description, I love romance. I like tension and conflict and passion. When two characters come together, fierce embraces and hungry kisses as their lust and desire boils over, that’s a delight. Or a long, slow simmer with constant buildup of teasing and temptation and denial, each time going just one step closer to consummation before backing off and letting things cool off a bit, that’s delicious. Then again, the ruthless and relentless pursuit of the unattainable, striving to catch their eye and scheming to steal their heart… what’s not to love? How about conquest? Taking the object of desire and using them to slake your want, regardless of their protests. Corrupting innocence and slowly leading your lover down a winding trail into depravity? Oh yes, please let me have a little of everything, but above all there’s gotta be a story. Smut is fun, but if you write nothing but sex it pales pretty quickly and you don’t come to care about the characters. Will I write just smut? Of course, when the mood is on me, but even a one-shot that is pure sex is going to end up with some plot in there too. Gotta get my fix somehow.
Cravings come and go, but some are eternal:
Foreplay, Teasing and Romance - I just cannot do without these.
Biting - The best part about vampires is having an excuse to sink one’s teeth into that elegant curve of neck and shoulder.
Dominance/Submission - It’s fun to break a slave or discipline a pet. It can also be fun just having two equals who clash and compete constantly, always trying to gain the advantage.
Nonhumans - I’ve always liked interspecies romance, whether it’s a dragon taking a shine to his virgin sacrifice or an alien savouring a close encounter of the kinky kind there is just something about it that appeals to me.
Bondage - Every boy scout should know his knots, right?
Oral - Giving or getting, what’s not to love?
Anal - I admit, it’s the naughtiness I enjoy about subtext. *facepalm* buttsex, not subtext.
There are oh so many more, but that’s a taste. Again, check my F-List for a full breakdown and do feel free to ask questions and set boundaries. Tell me your limits and I will do my level best to heed them or let you know that I cannot. When writing’s involved I try to be flexible and considerate - if my partner isn’t enjoying themselves, I am not likely to either. We are all here to have fun, right?
<<<** FANDOMS **>>>
While I do love to make my own worlds to order, I am just as happy to play in someone else’s pool. My anime fanfic days may be behind me but I’m still a geek and we geeks do have our enthusiasm’s, don’t we? Fair warning, I will always prefer to use my own characters in an existing world and even if I am portraying a canon it will probably end up with my own spin on it.
Worlds I like to write in:
Archer - I just finished season 5 and oh I do love this show. Such a grand cast of characters and all of them so despicable.
Robert E Howard’s Hyborian Age - Swords, sorcery, dusky maidens, brawny warriors and deadly thieves… nummy.
Star Wars - a fondness for The Old Republic era especially but I love it all.
Marvel Comics - more Thunderbolts than X-Men, but deep down I even like Spider Man(’s supporting cast
).
MLP:FiM - I may or may not be a brony. My imaginary lawyer advises me not to comment further at this time.
Robert Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels - dystopian postcyberpunk sci fi… just shoot it right into my veins!
Fallout - zany retro future shenanigans. If we try, I’ll bet we can fit some hijinks in too.
Star Trek - I have never actually written Trek, but I love the world
SLA Industries - If you have heard of this, I will be amazed. Dark and twisted horror with a sci-fi twist
Transformers - especially Transformers: Prime. Because everyone deserves a chance to transform and roll out.
Mass Effect - ask me about my gregarious Krogan or my angsty, disenchanted Turian. n_n
Rifts RPG - yes, alright, the rules are a mess. Forget the rules, the world is just such fun to play in. Magic, science, human, monster, ancient gods and alien invasions, Rifts has it all. Just no sanity.
James Bond - or any spy tale. Burn Notice, Bond, Blacklist, White Collar, Mission Impossible, the Saint, the Prisoner… it’s all good.
Heavy Gear - Dream Pod 9’s sci-fi mecha game comes wrapped in a deeply engaging world and a host of plot ideas. If you know it, if you love it, will you write there?
Hercules and Xena - I have been rewatching Hercules and it’s such great lighthearted fun.
Cyberpunk - whether it’s Gibson’s Sprawl, Effinger’s Budayeen Nights, Walter Jon Williams’ Hard Wired or even Mike Pondsmith’s Night City, if it’s chrome it is king.
Gundam - whether it’s the One Year War or one of the spin-offs, everyone deserves giant robots and angsty psychic pilots.
Warhammer 40,000 - talk about a rich world. With decades of background and an entire galaxy of stories to plumb, I could get lost in here forever. Space Marines, Ork Freebootaz, Chaos Cultists… oh my.
Warhammer Fantasy - see the above, just substitute ‘Empire Knights’ for space marines. A deep and grimdark fantasy world with all the comforts of home and so much more.
Stormhawks - another cartoon, must be a trend. Bird names, transforming motorcycle/planes, crystal magic and sky pirates.
Schlock Mercenary - Howard Tayler is a prince among men and THE gold standard of webcomic reliability. His world is just… vibrant. And hilarious.
Borderlands - A crazy, violent world filled with truly zany (and horrifying) characters. Plus, there’s Mad Moxxi, a sinfully salacious goddess of mayhem and romance.
Dragon Booster - did you see that cartoon? Dragons, racing, mystic forces and technology mingled. Did I mention dragons?
Eclipse Phase - another RPG world, this one is posthumans trying to stave off extinction after the Earth was all but destroyed by our own AI creations.
I could witter on literally forever, because there are ten trillion great stories out there. So easy to leech off of and bend to new directions, but somehow think I’ve ranted enough. Let’s move on to my own story ideas, shall we? This way:
<<<** CONCEPTS **>>>
Don’t Get Cocky
Podracing may be fine for Boonta Eve, but the ultimate sport for thrillseekers is Hyper Formula One. From Coruscant to the Rim, everyone loves this high speed bloodsport. Starfighter racing - one part dogfight, two parts obstacle course, fill with drag race and serve with a turbolaser garnish.
With the best pilots in the galaxy at the controls and some VERY shady people managing them what could go wrong? The finest teams travel across the galaxy and at every stop a new race. Will you be threading your way through an asteroid belt or racing across a planet’s surface at treetop altitude? Will the Incom Corporation Thunderbolts hold onto their lead in the championship, or will MandalMotors’ Panthac Squadron manage to pip them to the post? What about the rumors that Rendili have just signed a Jedi pilot? Are Arakyd really going to try droid pilots again after Cybot Galactica’s failure?
In the cockpit, it’s a headlong free-for-all where a blaster bolt or a torpedo warhead are your reward for a mistake. On the ground, it’s a permanent party with the added spice of bitter rivalries between pilots, a barrage of media attention, celebrities and fans living vicariously and corporate espionage as teams and pilots jockey for an advantage. Over it all are Baron Occlesten and Morbo the Hutt, the heads of the HF-1 Association, the suavely thuggish pair who have made starfighter racing into the ultimate money machine.
If we can’t work out a plotline around space races and star wars then there is no hope for the world.
Unintended Consequences
A young man (say high school to university age) is studying daemonology and tries his hand at summoning a succubus. Pity he did it in his apartment in his landlady’s basement, because somehow the demon possesses her and the spell binds it there. He soon discovers that the succubus can’t take control all the time, and when it does the poor woman only remembers it as vivid dreams when the demon submerges again. Comedy and smut ensues.
There are variations on this theme, depending on feedback. Why is he trying to summon demons? Does he control the demon or have to fight just to keep it in check? The poor possessed lass can be someone else: a friend, the object of desire, a family member even if we’re feeling naughty. This could even be played as a darker romance, an obsessed man’s plan to twist his unrequited love into the perfect woman. Or it can be lighthearted fun, or a little of both. Options are open.
Childish Things…
A girl comes back home to visit and her parents tell her they found her childhood friend, the stuffed animal that she carried everywhere when she was younger. The imaginary friend who shared so many adventures with her and protected her from the monsters under the bed and kept away the nightmares and made her childhood so much less lonely.
Only... when she takes it home, she discovers that she wasn't making up the stories she told her parents. That her stuffed toy really is alive, and when no one else is looking it turns into that big, friendly companion she remembers... And after so long alone in the attic, worrying about his only friend, her childhood companion has grown possessive and selfish and just a little crazy. He won't leave her alone, and he won't let anyone hurt her ever again. Soon things start to happen and no one even SEES the big tiger or wolf or bear following her around. Protecting her and guarding her, like a jealous husband. In love with her, and convinced that no one but he can make her happy.
When they are together, he can be tender and sweet and loving. The perfect gentleman, helpful and supportive, until she has to go. When she leaves him to go shopping or to work he gets tense, irritable, paranoid and aggressive towards anyone around that isn’t her. Following her, watching her to make sure she’s alright. Even playing unseen pranks on others. What he wants is to wrap her in a protective bubble so that she will be happy, and sooner or later her toy will go too far. Over the long lonely years in the attic his love has become so much more, after all. Now that she is grown, it has blossomed into a physical attraction, a lustful obsession that will never be satisfied.
Where does it go? Anywhere we want. It can be played for drama, romance, even moments of comedy (invisible friends are like that, after all) but always with a bit of a darkly twisted edge to it.
Putting the Human into Super
So you have powers. You can lift tall buildings, leap speeding bullets and are more maneuverable than a locomotive? Congratulations. Now, what will you do with all that power? Fight Crime, or commit it? Save people or just yourself? Build something or tear it down? Villain or Hero? Will you keep your identity secret or sell advertising space on your cape?
I love comic books and super heroes. I have (no joke) hundreds of hero and villain concepts sitting around and a lifetime of knowledge about canon characters from The Atom to Baron Zemo. DC, Marvel, Wildstorm, Image, Dark Horse, Indie… so the sky is the limit.
Oh, and I have lately been contemplating all the fun of a hero-villain romance. Secrets, lies, plots, betrayal, redemption, forgiveness and all that those imply. True love can conquer all, but money, power and revenge are going to at least put up a fight.
Naked Ambitions
The Warlord has been raiding your kingdom’s borders for years, never quite strong enough to hold any territory but preying on towns and villages and robbing nobles and merchants. For all their efforts the King’s armies never managed to stop him even when they won the battle, he somehow slipped away. Old and tired, the King knows he needs to do something to protect his kingdom, but his only heir is his daughter and the nobility would never accept a queen, would they?
So the King has devised a plan to find a worthy man to wed his daughter and take the throne when he dies: a tournament. A month of games and contests to test every suitor, with the victor claiming the princess’ hand in marriage if they can pass the final test and put an end to the Warlord’s attacks.
Of course, what no one knows as the tourney begins is that the Warlord is competing in disguise. In one fell swoop he can claim the kingdom he has craved so long and revenge himself on the King who exiled his father.
What happens next? Will the Warlord fall for the princess’ charms? Will his secret be discovered? Will the princess accept her father’s plan or fight it? Is it time for a Queen to rule? The scene is set for intrigue, derring-do, seduction, romance, politics, war, feasts, plunder, rapine and maybe even a jester in one of those tinkly hats.
Just remember: poison the women, plunder the wells and rape the houses.
Well, if you made it this far and remain conscious I am astonished. There is but one more thing: if anything in this post has struck a chord with you, do feel free to drop me a line via PM and we can talk story and plot and such.
Talk to you soon.
Wait. That’s Conan. *cough* Apologies, starting over.
After a break of over a year due to illness, I am actually able to type again (hurrah, working hands). Though I am rusty as Procol Harem’s Conquistador, I do want to start writing and telling stories again. If you’re game, if you can PM me, then maybe you can hire…
No, not the A-Team. Just a writing partner with a good deal of mileage on him, an overactive imagination and a broad range of interests.
Oh, and before I begin: I would take it as a kindness if you would reply via PM, I can’t guarantee I’ll remember to check this thread until the next time I bump it.
<<<** STYLE **>>>
I like to think of myself as a fairly decent writer. I’m quite literate, and while my grammar can at times be atrocious (those poor commas, so overworked) I try not to hit send without reading it over and making sense of whatever maddened scrawl I’ve bashed out. Hopefully this request thread will be sufficient evidence of my faculties, but I can always send you a writing sample if desired.
Regarding post length, I am flexible. I will never send less than a paragraph, and rarely less than 3. If the mood takes me and the good mojo is flowing, then the sky is the limit (assuming I don’t notice I’m overdoing it when I proofread, of course). Simply put, I will write what I feel the story needs, and I do try to make every post I write a good one. Quality over quantity, but on a good day I can do both.
As far as turnaround time, well, I am not what I used to be. Heh, what is that old engineer’s joke? You can have good, cheap or fast - pick two. Do not get me wrong, on a rare occasion, if the story is gripping my right by the throat (or the short and curlies) then a same-day reply CAN happen. On the other hand, I am relearning how to type and I do not want to push myself. Shall we say one or two replies a week, three at the outside? A two to three day turnaround is what I will be aiming for, and if you don’t hear from me in a week, remind me and I will reply post-haste and be effusive in my apologies.
Medium? Well I’m more of a large, but that’s neither here nor there. I prefer to write via email, PM and thread (in that order) but I am willing to brainstorm and chat on instant messengers if you wish. Yahoo doesn’t exist on OSX yosemite (and Trillian looks godawful) but I still have Skype (and it is still as reliable as a poorly maintained Renault) and can fire it up if needed.
Now then, to business.
<<<** CONTENT **>>>
Ahh, the good stuff. Story. Take a nice deep breath and taste that plot.
Mmmmm… Delicious.
*ahem* Is there anything better than stories? I love stories. They are my vice, my addiction, my salvation and my obsession. I love to brainstorm and worldbuild. I love coming up with new characters and plotlines. What kind of stories, I hear no one asking?
All kinds.
I have written a little of everything, from High Fantasy to Space Opera and everything in between. Historical romances, Western tales, cyberpunk, noir detective stories and urban fantasy. From fanfiction to romance, from drama to action, from intrigue to smut, I have had fun with them all. Really, if you can name it, I can probably come up with SOMETHING for a storyline. Throw me a suggestion, an idea, a plot seed and I will gleefully run away with it, cackling in delight. Or look a little further down and see some of my own ideas, plot seeds and concepts.
But what of character? Well, I tend to be honest and state that I’m an asshole and… oh, CHARACTERS. Riiiiiight. Well, I usually write heterosexual male characters, but I can and have enjoyed writing women, men, gay/bi/straight/etc. My tendency is towards the dominant side of a d/s relationship if that’s a story element, but I can play sub too if need be. I do enjoy nonhuman characters, whether they be vampires (ones with menace, not the tinkly-wee watered down variety), werecritters (wolves, cats, bears, etc), dragons, monsters, aliens and whatever else has struck my fancy at the time.
The naughtiness, lad! what about the naughtiness? Alright, since you insist: my interests and kinks are just as broad as my taste in plot and character. A full list is here - F-List but in brief:
I love description, I love romance. I like tension and conflict and passion. When two characters come together, fierce embraces and hungry kisses as their lust and desire boils over, that’s a delight. Or a long, slow simmer with constant buildup of teasing and temptation and denial, each time going just one step closer to consummation before backing off and letting things cool off a bit, that’s delicious. Then again, the ruthless and relentless pursuit of the unattainable, striving to catch their eye and scheming to steal their heart… what’s not to love? How about conquest? Taking the object of desire and using them to slake your want, regardless of their protests. Corrupting innocence and slowly leading your lover down a winding trail into depravity? Oh yes, please let me have a little of everything, but above all there’s gotta be a story. Smut is fun, but if you write nothing but sex it pales pretty quickly and you don’t come to care about the characters. Will I write just smut? Of course, when the mood is on me, but even a one-shot that is pure sex is going to end up with some plot in there too. Gotta get my fix somehow.
Cravings come and go, but some are eternal:
Foreplay, Teasing and Romance - I just cannot do without these.
Biting - The best part about vampires is having an excuse to sink one’s teeth into that elegant curve of neck and shoulder.
Dominance/Submission - It’s fun to break a slave or discipline a pet. It can also be fun just having two equals who clash and compete constantly, always trying to gain the advantage.
Nonhumans - I’ve always liked interspecies romance, whether it’s a dragon taking a shine to his virgin sacrifice or an alien savouring a close encounter of the kinky kind there is just something about it that appeals to me.
Bondage - Every boy scout should know his knots, right?
Oral - Giving or getting, what’s not to love?
Anal - I admit, it’s the naughtiness I enjoy about subtext. *facepalm* buttsex, not subtext.
There are oh so many more, but that’s a taste. Again, check my F-List for a full breakdown and do feel free to ask questions and set boundaries. Tell me your limits and I will do my level best to heed them or let you know that I cannot. When writing’s involved I try to be flexible and considerate - if my partner isn’t enjoying themselves, I am not likely to either. We are all here to have fun, right?
<<<** FANDOMS **>>>
While I do love to make my own worlds to order, I am just as happy to play in someone else’s pool. My anime fanfic days may be behind me but I’m still a geek and we geeks do have our enthusiasm’s, don’t we? Fair warning, I will always prefer to use my own characters in an existing world and even if I am portraying a canon it will probably end up with my own spin on it.
Worlds I like to write in:
Archer - I just finished season 5 and oh I do love this show. Such a grand cast of characters and all of them so despicable.
Robert E Howard’s Hyborian Age - Swords, sorcery, dusky maidens, brawny warriors and deadly thieves… nummy.
Star Wars - a fondness for The Old Republic era especially but I love it all.
Marvel Comics - more Thunderbolts than X-Men, but deep down I even like Spider Man(’s supporting cast
).MLP:FiM - I may or may not be a brony. My imaginary lawyer advises me not to comment further at this time.
Robert Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels - dystopian postcyberpunk sci fi… just shoot it right into my veins!
Fallout - zany retro future shenanigans. If we try, I’ll bet we can fit some hijinks in too.
Star Trek - I have never actually written Trek, but I love the world
SLA Industries - If you have heard of this, I will be amazed. Dark and twisted horror with a sci-fi twist
Transformers - especially Transformers: Prime. Because everyone deserves a chance to transform and roll out.
Mass Effect - ask me about my gregarious Krogan or my angsty, disenchanted Turian. n_n
Rifts RPG - yes, alright, the rules are a mess. Forget the rules, the world is just such fun to play in. Magic, science, human, monster, ancient gods and alien invasions, Rifts has it all. Just no sanity.
James Bond - or any spy tale. Burn Notice, Bond, Blacklist, White Collar, Mission Impossible, the Saint, the Prisoner… it’s all good.
Heavy Gear - Dream Pod 9’s sci-fi mecha game comes wrapped in a deeply engaging world and a host of plot ideas. If you know it, if you love it, will you write there?
Hercules and Xena - I have been rewatching Hercules and it’s such great lighthearted fun.
Cyberpunk - whether it’s Gibson’s Sprawl, Effinger’s Budayeen Nights, Walter Jon Williams’ Hard Wired or even Mike Pondsmith’s Night City, if it’s chrome it is king.
Gundam - whether it’s the One Year War or one of the spin-offs, everyone deserves giant robots and angsty psychic pilots.
Warhammer 40,000 - talk about a rich world. With decades of background and an entire galaxy of stories to plumb, I could get lost in here forever. Space Marines, Ork Freebootaz, Chaos Cultists… oh my.
Warhammer Fantasy - see the above, just substitute ‘Empire Knights’ for space marines. A deep and grimdark fantasy world with all the comforts of home and so much more.
Stormhawks - another cartoon, must be a trend. Bird names, transforming motorcycle/planes, crystal magic and sky pirates.
Schlock Mercenary - Howard Tayler is a prince among men and THE gold standard of webcomic reliability. His world is just… vibrant. And hilarious.
Borderlands - A crazy, violent world filled with truly zany (and horrifying) characters. Plus, there’s Mad Moxxi, a sinfully salacious goddess of mayhem and romance.
Dragon Booster - did you see that cartoon? Dragons, racing, mystic forces and technology mingled. Did I mention dragons?
Eclipse Phase - another RPG world, this one is posthumans trying to stave off extinction after the Earth was all but destroyed by our own AI creations.
I could witter on literally forever, because there are ten trillion great stories out there. So easy to leech off of and bend to new directions, but somehow think I’ve ranted enough. Let’s move on to my own story ideas, shall we? This way:
<<<** CONCEPTS **>>>
Don’t Get Cocky
Podracing may be fine for Boonta Eve, but the ultimate sport for thrillseekers is Hyper Formula One. From Coruscant to the Rim, everyone loves this high speed bloodsport. Starfighter racing - one part dogfight, two parts obstacle course, fill with drag race and serve with a turbolaser garnish.
With the best pilots in the galaxy at the controls and some VERY shady people managing them what could go wrong? The finest teams travel across the galaxy and at every stop a new race. Will you be threading your way through an asteroid belt or racing across a planet’s surface at treetop altitude? Will the Incom Corporation Thunderbolts hold onto their lead in the championship, or will MandalMotors’ Panthac Squadron manage to pip them to the post? What about the rumors that Rendili have just signed a Jedi pilot? Are Arakyd really going to try droid pilots again after Cybot Galactica’s failure?
In the cockpit, it’s a headlong free-for-all where a blaster bolt or a torpedo warhead are your reward for a mistake. On the ground, it’s a permanent party with the added spice of bitter rivalries between pilots, a barrage of media attention, celebrities and fans living vicariously and corporate espionage as teams and pilots jockey for an advantage. Over it all are Baron Occlesten and Morbo the Hutt, the heads of the HF-1 Association, the suavely thuggish pair who have made starfighter racing into the ultimate money machine.
If we can’t work out a plotline around space races and star wars then there is no hope for the world.
Unintended Consequences
A young man (say high school to university age) is studying daemonology and tries his hand at summoning a succubus. Pity he did it in his apartment in his landlady’s basement, because somehow the demon possesses her and the spell binds it there. He soon discovers that the succubus can’t take control all the time, and when it does the poor woman only remembers it as vivid dreams when the demon submerges again. Comedy and smut ensues.
There are variations on this theme, depending on feedback. Why is he trying to summon demons? Does he control the demon or have to fight just to keep it in check? The poor possessed lass can be someone else: a friend, the object of desire, a family member even if we’re feeling naughty. This could even be played as a darker romance, an obsessed man’s plan to twist his unrequited love into the perfect woman. Or it can be lighthearted fun, or a little of both. Options are open.
Childish Things…
A girl comes back home to visit and her parents tell her they found her childhood friend, the stuffed animal that she carried everywhere when she was younger. The imaginary friend who shared so many adventures with her and protected her from the monsters under the bed and kept away the nightmares and made her childhood so much less lonely.
Only... when she takes it home, she discovers that she wasn't making up the stories she told her parents. That her stuffed toy really is alive, and when no one else is looking it turns into that big, friendly companion she remembers... And after so long alone in the attic, worrying about his only friend, her childhood companion has grown possessive and selfish and just a little crazy. He won't leave her alone, and he won't let anyone hurt her ever again. Soon things start to happen and no one even SEES the big tiger or wolf or bear following her around. Protecting her and guarding her, like a jealous husband. In love with her, and convinced that no one but he can make her happy.
When they are together, he can be tender and sweet and loving. The perfect gentleman, helpful and supportive, until she has to go. When she leaves him to go shopping or to work he gets tense, irritable, paranoid and aggressive towards anyone around that isn’t her. Following her, watching her to make sure she’s alright. Even playing unseen pranks on others. What he wants is to wrap her in a protective bubble so that she will be happy, and sooner or later her toy will go too far. Over the long lonely years in the attic his love has become so much more, after all. Now that she is grown, it has blossomed into a physical attraction, a lustful obsession that will never be satisfied.
Where does it go? Anywhere we want. It can be played for drama, romance, even moments of comedy (invisible friends are like that, after all) but always with a bit of a darkly twisted edge to it.
Putting the Human into Super
So you have powers. You can lift tall buildings, leap speeding bullets and are more maneuverable than a locomotive? Congratulations. Now, what will you do with all that power? Fight Crime, or commit it? Save people or just yourself? Build something or tear it down? Villain or Hero? Will you keep your identity secret or sell advertising space on your cape?
I love comic books and super heroes. I have (no joke) hundreds of hero and villain concepts sitting around and a lifetime of knowledge about canon characters from The Atom to Baron Zemo. DC, Marvel, Wildstorm, Image, Dark Horse, Indie… so the sky is the limit.
Oh, and I have lately been contemplating all the fun of a hero-villain romance. Secrets, lies, plots, betrayal, redemption, forgiveness and all that those imply. True love can conquer all, but money, power and revenge are going to at least put up a fight.
Naked Ambitions
The Warlord has been raiding your kingdom’s borders for years, never quite strong enough to hold any territory but preying on towns and villages and robbing nobles and merchants. For all their efforts the King’s armies never managed to stop him even when they won the battle, he somehow slipped away. Old and tired, the King knows he needs to do something to protect his kingdom, but his only heir is his daughter and the nobility would never accept a queen, would they?
So the King has devised a plan to find a worthy man to wed his daughter and take the throne when he dies: a tournament. A month of games and contests to test every suitor, with the victor claiming the princess’ hand in marriage if they can pass the final test and put an end to the Warlord’s attacks.
Of course, what no one knows as the tourney begins is that the Warlord is competing in disguise. In one fell swoop he can claim the kingdom he has craved so long and revenge himself on the King who exiled his father.
What happens next? Will the Warlord fall for the princess’ charms? Will his secret be discovered? Will the princess accept her father’s plan or fight it? Is it time for a Queen to rule? The scene is set for intrigue, derring-do, seduction, romance, politics, war, feasts, plunder, rapine and maybe even a jester in one of those tinkly hats.
Just remember: poison the women, plunder the wells and rape the houses.
Well, if you made it this far and remain conscious I am astonished. There is but one more thing: if anything in this post has struck a chord with you, do feel free to drop me a line via PM and we can talk story and plot and such.
Talk to you soon.