Forums - SonicSpot Board - Sonic RPG A - The Solarian Cipher
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Jan 22, 2012 7:45 pm PT
Welcome to Sonic RPG - SonicSpot's largest scale forum game.
Let's be honest - there's a lot of interesting stuff in the Sonic universe, but none of it really gets the treatment it deserves. Be it simplistic and light-hearted like Sonic Colors or painful and overdone like the infamous Sonic 06, the storytelling is weak and a lot of potential is wasted. Just look at Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood or the Sonic "SatAM" cartoon for good examples. The Sonic RPG forum game tries to solve this problem by having you, the player, participate in and help create a story in the Sonic Universe. The world, major characters, and basic plot are provided. You provide a character of your own and help save the day (or destroy it, if you want...). Think of it as a Sonic MMORPG, except without all the boring fetch quests, grinding, and sleepless nights murdering sheep for the wool to make that armor you want. For those that are thinking this might be like the massive "Sonic RPG 9" thread you saw floating around, well, the two don't share a lot more than a name. The old "Sonic RPG" games were a large scale, collaborative story-writing effort. This one is an Actual Role-Playing Game (hence the "A" in the title), where you play through a flexible story which has already been developed. You can think of this has halfway between the old format and D&D (or Pathfinder or whatever your favorite role-playing system is). You have almost limitless freedom in how you create your character, how they act, and their interactions with the world around them. You also don't need to worry about getting bogged down with stats and die rolls - there's none of that here. There will be a Game Master, however, controlling the major events and NPCs in the story. For those of you bothered by the fact that A doesn't come after 9, I suggest you brush up on your Hexadecimal.  I hope you enjoy our newest forum game, and good luck!  AIM (sonicphc) MSN messenger (sonicphc@hotmaol.com)
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Jan 22, 2012 7:48 pm PT
The Setting.
It's large enough that GameSpot regularly messed up the formatting when I try and post it in different ways, so the above is a link do a publicly-viewable Google document. You don't need a google account to view it, just a modern web browser. 
AIM (sonicphc) MSN messenger (sonicphc@hotmaol.com)
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Jan 22, 2012 8:13 pm PT
How to Play:
1. Read the Setting. This described the world you'll be partaking in. 2. Create a character. More details on that will follow shortly. 3. Once the game "starts," create an introductory post. Describe where your character is, what they're doing, etc. 4. I will "reply" to your introductory post by making a post about or involving your character(s). This is your "green light" to start playing. 5. You, the other players, and I will continue to make posts describing your actions and the actions of others, advancing the story. Your posts In your posts, you are free to do just about anything with your characters. This is an RPG, after all, so expect to do a lot of Role-Playing. You are more than welcome to have conversations with NPCs, join an ongoing fight, heal a wounded citizen, or scheme and plot from a distance. Anything goes... almost. There are a couple of rules you have to abide by: Posting Rules: 1. You may only control the character you own, NPCs tied to your character, or minor NPCs in your posts. 1a. Any major or story-critical NPCs belong to the GameMaster and may not be controlled unless otherwise stated. It will be made abundantly clear what these are. Actually, that's it. You are welcome to describe settings, create NPCs, find objects, or anything else you'd like to do with or around your character in your posts. Your post can be as simple as "Jarvis quickly searched the guards for anything helpful," in which case I'll come in and explain what your character finds and can take, or it can be as complex as: "Jarvis breathed a sigh of relief - his gas grenade worked better than expected. He tried to wipe the nervous beads from his forehead, but his sweat-drenched gloves just spread it around. He took a moment to search the guards. He claimed a ring of keys, a pair of red access cards, and 15 Mobians. Not a bad haul, all in all. He gave one a swift kick in the ribs to relieve his nerves before heading inside." In this case, the player is taking more creative liberty. Of course, there's no guarantee that the keys will work (I might have Jarvis discover all the locks inside are biometric, later), but it's perfectly okay to do into detail and invent solutions to your own problems. Some people will play a more traditional role playing style, where they just describe actions and I describe the results, and some will want more creative control. Either one is fine. You're posts are also welcome to be longer than the one presented above - that was just a small example. A few suggestions when making your posts to players familiar with the old format. (New players should skip ahead to the "GM Posts" section: 1. Keep them on the shorter side once the plot starts in. In the past, we'd see large, "mini-chapter" type posts with giant walls of text describing a ton of actions and emotional details. This is fine in your first couple of posts (though certainly not expected or required), but later on when interacting with other players or Major NPCs/Events, there needs to be room for the other player or GM to step in and make things happen. 2. Don't try and invent major plot points or events. Recall that Major NPCs and Events belong to me, and if you try something world-changing or story-shaking it's probably going to get revoked or magically undone by an act of God. This includes creating world threatening alien life forms, invading armies, mass-mudering machines, etc. You have control over non-critical NPCs and such, yes, but that's only so you don't have to wait for me every time your character wants to do something. Your control over the plot comes in your character's actions, not control over the game world. 3. There are no secrets from the GM. If you have some big reveal planned involving your character's backstory (which isn't encouraged) it's fine if you want to keep it secret from the other players (also not encouraged), but I need to know well in advance what you're doing. Feel free to ask me any questions you have over PM regarding this. GM POSTS: There are a couple of formatting quirks I'm going to use in my posts to help guide everyone along: Italicized Text are important things of note. Underlined Text indicates "quest" type things being presented to characters. Bold Text indicates decisions or suggestions for characters. Here are a few examples of posts I might make: "As Jarvis pushed his way through the crowd, he couldn't help but notice a short, rabbit woman following him. She was wearing the same ring as the man who had tried to kill him earlier. Unlike the man from before, however, she seemed to want his help." The use of italics and underlines in this one should be obvious. Jarvis is welcome to ignore this woman, offer her his help, or lure her into a back alleyway, beat her up and interrogate her. Helping her, though, or at least getting some information out of her, would put Jarvis on some sort of "quest" like track. I use "quest" lightly - it just means a plot point I planned out a bit. In this case, the woman knows of a golden apple kept in a vault which can be used to subdue her extremely violent, murderous husband. Here's an excerpt from later on that "quest": "Jarvis had taken no more than a step into the building when the room lit up with a thick maze of lasers. Stealing the golden apple was going to be a little trickier than he had initially thought. As a master thief, he certainly had the agility to try and navigate the alarm system himself, but from where he stood the blandly-decorated looked more red than grey. There was also a skylight on the roof he could try, but the guards up there were probably on much higher alert than their door-based counterparts. He briefly recalled the hacker, Lancing, who had given him her phone number. She could probably disable the security system, but getting a hold of her, convincing her to come, and taking her to the vault would cost a lot of time - time he wasn't sure he had." If Jarvis picks any of those options (he's welcome to invent some other plan), he (and Lacing, if he goes with option 3) and I will determine what happens. If he navigates the alarm system, I'll probably throw a die on my end and reply with the result. If he goes for the skylight, there are probably a couple more posts of getting on the roof, dealing with the guards, and then breaking through. If he goes with Lancing, well, he has to deal with another player (or me, if Lancing was a Major NPC)., but Lancing's skills would make it a guaranteed success. Of course, Jarvis could come up with some other ridiculous or clever plan other than one I presented there - those are just helpful suggestions. I'll reiterate that bold text options are only suggestions, and are in no way meant to be limiting your possibilities. There may also be secret information, only sent to certain players via PM, depending on the situation. This could be private correspondence from an NPC, the effects of an unknown curse, or information their character has acquired that they may want to keep secret as collateral later on. Keep an eye on your inbox - I'll announce some PMs, but not all of them. Now that you've read this wall of text, it's time to create your characters! To the next post! AIM (sonicphc) MSN messenger (sonicphc@hotmaol.com)
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Jan 22, 2012 8:19 pm PT
Ok, that's all the rules/introductory stuff. Feel free to ask any and all questions you might have, either in a post here or via PM. If it all sounds like a bit much, and maybe you'd like to wait to see how this thing works before you start playing, remember this rule:
YOU CAN JOIN OR LEAVE AT ANY TIME. And, unlike in the numerical RPGs of the past, in RPG A this is actually possible, since I'm the GM and keep control of all relevant plot details I can easily get a new player and character up to speed, placed in the world, and doing something related to the plot with a single PM and Post. Ready... Go create your characters! We'll start doing introductory posts and actual RPG playing on February 1st. AIM (sonicphc) MSN messenger (sonicphc@hotmaol.com)
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Jan 22, 2012 10:07 pm PT
Name: Peter McCullaugh
Age: 21 Height: 3' 11" Species: Echidna Fur Color: Dark Green Eye Color: Orange Equipment: Old School song player (MP3 player) that still works from before the Dark Ages. He normally keeps it on him, but doens't use it unless he is in the privacy of his home so he doens't get in trouble for using it. Abilities/Talents: Two big ones. Power mimicry and power negation. He can mimic powers of other people as well as cancel them out at his whim. He also has knowledge in science and math, though he tries not to show it much. He knows how to use a computer well enough. He knows hand-to-hand combat well enough to handle himself. Background Story: Due to the fact he was five at the time, Peter doens't have much memory of the great wars before Ivo Robotnik came to power. He does, however, have strong memories of what happened during that time and the fighting going on. His father had gone off to fight against him, leaving Peter in care of his mother. He never heard from his father again, but still thinks of him today as a hero. Peter and his mother lived for a long time in the waste lands and served to help rebuild Mobotropolis. They were able to score a nice place to live before Peter moved out when he was 18. In the three years between when he moved out and now, Peter met Rana Brooke. and, slowly, became a couple. They are now living together in the outer district, though the house is in the weaker part of the district. Also during this time, Peter was able to score a starting position as a Royal Messengers after copying Sonic's powers one day and trying out for the job. Edited on Jan 22, 2012 10:18 pm PT "Hmmph! Says the one who punches like a Shuckle." |
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Jan 23, 2012 1:34 pm PT
Ugh. I need to redo this.
Well.... Name: Ge-Yin (left) El-Len (right) Species: Two-horned chameleons Description: Ge-Yin- 17 years old (though 15 min. older than his twin sister) yellow, gold ninja shoes, gold bandana, blue eyes, gold gloves and wristbands. Live by the Bushido but sometimes due to his temper he can forget about his honor if anyone makes him angry of immaturity or assassinations. Overprotective to his twin sister, El-Len, and feels uncomfortable leaving her by herself or leaves to go on her own. His life is dedicated to the legacy of the Bushido Dragon, Yang that has been past down by the family. El-Len- 17 years old, white, purple eyes, foreign clothing, blue ninja boots, blue gloves, and dark blue wristbands. Don't let the kind and beautiful face fool you. She may be pure heart, sensitive, and filled with caring but her spirit is ninja. Unlike her brother she doesn't fight unless she really needs to. Life and death situation? Very calm and patient whatever she's up against. She follows the Way of the Bushido and the legacy as well. Abilities/Talents: The Art of Ninjutsu, knows little bit of technology, and computers. Equipment: All sorts of ninja weapons but El-Len use her twin sais most of all. Background: The twins lived in a village on the other side of the world named Timpa when they where small children. For years their family were living by the code of ninja and began a legacy to follow the Bushido ways by the white dragon, Yang. The twins were in training, learning from the parents themselves and good friends with the chieftain there. But things had gone from bad to worse when the village was attacked by robot pursuers and immediately turned out as a war. The twins were put to safety and they waited for the battle to stop. No one came for them and everything grew silence and such a cold feeling of loss startled them. They arrived at the village, a complete wreck. Everyone in that fight had fallen. Including the mother and father hand-in-hand. The chieftain was slain also and the twins didn't know what to do. After months of travelling, the children were pick up by some people of Knothole and brought them to the kingdom. Years later and they had continued on in their training at the P3. But of all the special training they got, they're not happy with it. The twins feel like something's missing. Something about the legacy they grew up with... Trust Betrayal Reflection 
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Jan 23, 2012 4:10 pm PT
I'll give this one a shot. Name: Eddie the Wolf Description: Eddie the Wolf stands at 5'11" with a swimmer's build. He has brown fur, black hair and brown eyes. His main choice of clothing is a dark brown leather jacket, black t-shirt, blue denim cargo jeans, and tennis shoes. Abilities: He has the ability to run around half to three quarters the speed of a sonic boom.
Weaknesses: Along with his running ability, Eddie can do free-styling hand-to-hand combat. However, running will wear him out which leaves him vulnerable to open attacks. Personality: Eddie is very calm and collective. People may think that he is shady due to his rather dark complexion. Once you approach him, he is rather easy to get along with. The only thing he expects is that you show him some respect, and he will do the same. He rarely gives his opinion of things, but he will oblige to speak if asked. He even may not show it much, but he is very determined to work hard in order to reach his goals in any beneficial way to himself and his friends. Background: Eddie grew up with the Freedom Fighters Wolf Pack. Upon entering adulthood, Eddie set off to explore what Mobius had to offer until he came upon Mobotropolis. Seeing that the city life was his following, he currently resides there looking for possible jobs in the area.
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Jan 23, 2012 6:29 pm PT
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Jan 23, 2012 7:51 pm PT
So many speed-based people. You'd think this was in a Sonic union or something...
 Good amount of variety in the category of speed powers though, especially for Provehito, I think (short-term dashes, likely could win the ten-meter dash over Sonic). By the way, glad you could join Raim.
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Jan 23, 2012 10:00 pm PT
Chances are,I'll make a character and leave after a while.She is based off my fantasy character that nobody knows about,take good care of her... It should be noted the pic was a lazy coloring of Sonic the Sketchhog,just made to give you an idea of her looks. Also,please let me know if i'm breaking/stretching the rules here,and if my character doesn't exactly work with the setting. Name:Glam the Hedgehog.
Description: Age:3. Size:She doesn't care enough to check.Neither.Should.You. Species:Hedgehog. Appearance:Her eyes are green,her gloves are blue,and her shoes are black.Has been known to wear video game/music shirts.Her guitar is almost always strapped to her back.She was born with the gloves on her hands. Her Hair was originally blue,but she dyed it pink. Abilities/Talents:She has psychokinesis,which she occasionally uses to lift herself up and move quickly,like Silver in Generations.She can also play every rock instrument better then anyone else,although she prefers the guitar and keys.Occasionally,she'll play multiple instruments at once thanks to psychokinesis. Weakness:Her greatest weakness is in her emotions.When she's depressed,she has great trouble focusing on her powers,and when she's angry,she makes more mistakes when attacking then Knuckles does.She also refuses to do anything wrong,whether thats killing,harming,or stealing from,to a good person. Equipment:Her blue guitar that she has had since the first year of her life.This guitar,however,is as light as a feather only to her,automatically repairs itself whenever it gets damaged (don't believe me?It fell out of that tour van once,was run over by ten cars,and repaired itself to perfect condition as soon as she picked it up),and she plays plently of lazer light shows with it. Personality:She is nice and playful,but can occasionally get serious when something makes her mad.She loves every genre of Music and video games out there.In fact,the same applies to most people,if she hates you,she has a good reason to.She is mostly influenced by video games,since she spent three years doing almost nothing but that.She can also be quite lazy at some points,but will always help someone in need. Likes:good people,bad people being brought to justice. Loves:Music,Video Games,themed T-Shirts,Cookies,the thrill of a good solution. Dislikes:Bad people. Hates: Death,raisin cookies. Background:She was raised in the thieves guild,left since she can't stand stealing from good people,and hid for 3 years,dying her hair Pink and giving herself a new name.During those 3 years,she played concerts all over Mobius.When she's not playing concerts,she's lying down on peoples couches playing video games.Nothing else is known about her,except that she's apparently 3 years old,has an awesome guitar,and has psychokinesis... /Nuff said. Edited on Feb 2, 2012 4:35 pm PT Edited 3 total times. |
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Jan 23, 2012 11:27 pm PT
Wow. 8 Already? Thank the Lord I gave myself a week and a half to plan. I'm working on doing some of the planning already, and as I'm sitting here with pen and paper I'm seeing some things that aren't likely to work, or could be changed to work a lot better with the setting and/or with the plot I have planned.
Some of you are getting a lot more comments than others. That's not a bad thing. I like all of the characters here. I really do. I have some great ideas for the roles all of you are going to have the chance to play (or not to - your characters are free to ignore my NPCs' advances). Some changes will need to be made for all of that to work, however. So, without further adeiu: barren - Looks good. I'd certainly hope so, given that we talked these ones out over MSN. kj - I laughed at the way you tied in Peter with the Royal Messengers. Very clever. Cloud - Physical with a hint of magic, and the fact that the magic's mostly for utility, blends really nicely with the setting. w_k - Ability wise, ninjas work great. That's sort of what the P3 is. As far as the backstory goes, though, I'd recommend dropping the "legendary dragon Yang" and "Timpa" bits so you can tie your characters more deeply into the setting. Perhaps make them straight up Padrians and tie them in more deeply with the P3? You'd have some creative control over who's in the P3 and how it operates if you did so. Also, your backstory seems to hint at some secret to be revealed later. If you want to keep that from the other players, that's fine, but I need to know about it. There are no secrets from the GM. homeboy - Given that you use this character every time, I think you're good. You might want to tie him in a little more deeply with the setting somehow, but you could always wait until your introductory post to do that, or wait until you're a few posts in to see how things develop. raim - Always nice to see a new face. Character looks good, and it's a power we certainly haven't seen before. My only comment is that if "speak...too much" is meant to imply something mysterious about his background, I need to know what that is before we start (PMs fine). If he's just really loose lipped, that's cool too. Babylon - The characters are too powerful, and the background doesn't really fit with the setting. An enumerated list of abilities probably isn't the way to go, here. Find one, key talent or a few minor talents and put them together. A good amount of the technology they own would be illegal in Mobotropolis, too (or at least would be in that concentration). The backstory goes against the ban on "travellers from a distant land," which is not there to limit your characters so much as it is to encourage you to tie your characters into the setting more rather than inventing lots of people and places with your backstory. The less integrated you are with the setting, the much harder it will be for me as GameMaster to get your characters active and included. If you'd like some individual help tweaking your characters to work better with this RPG, drop me a PM. SSB - Very limited Psychokinesis is fine, but the ability to levitate herself for significant distance might be pushing it, and adding to that the ability to heal is definitely too much. The self-repairing guitar is nifty and harmless in the long run, but the ability to shoot lasers with it... feels a little silly. And OMG that background is so long. Here are a few concrete suggestions: First, drop the lasers, and limit the powers to psychokenesis, and keep in mind the impact the Spires would have on the psychokenesis should she do more than lift simple objects. Second, I'd recommend you move her from the Wastes to the Slums and have her have been living there for some time; I like the way you tied her in with (and had her reject) the Thieves guild, and a born/created-and-raised in the slums background would enhance that. The "star from the heavens" bit needs to be changed (or just ommitted. Who needs origin stories?). I can tell you as GM there are no aliens or other planets with life on them or anything in this Universe. If anyone wants to talk character design or go back and forth on ideas related to the suggestions I made, you're welcome to post here, send me a PM, or contact me on MSN/AIM (sonicphc@hotmail.com/screenname sonicphc).
Edited on Jan 24, 2012 11:02 am PT Edited 3 total times. AIM (sonicphc) MSN messenger (sonicphc@hotmaol.com)
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Jan 24, 2012 4:16 pm PT
I'll see what I can change...although I don't know how I can remove the "star from heaven" part without changing her age(thats important to me,)and explaining where her powers came from.. Also,the Guitar firing the Lasers has been done before...in Sonic. and yea,I never noticed how super long it was til now Edit:Also,what about playing multiple instruments at once using her mind? Edited on Jan 24, 2012 5:21 pm PT Edited 3 total times. |
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Jan 25, 2012 2:01 am PT
DISCLAIMER: These walls of text look big. Sorry. I don't want to stifle your creative impulses or anything like that - I'm just trying to design a game that will result in the maximum enjoyment for everyone, and there are some character details that simply work better than others the way I'm designing this.
@w_k - I recall the characters and the whole dragon bit from RPG 8. Unfortunately, the mystical dragon part won't work with this RPG Setting. Sorry  As far as their backstory goes, I'd personally make them straight up Padrians, born and raised. The P3 are pretty dedicated to their rejection of technology and magic, and would likely share that openly/quickly indoctrinate their offspring. The twins are old enough to have lived through the dark ages, so you could write something maybe about their father dying in an attack by Robotnik there - once the dark ages ended, there would have been nothing around to destroy a village and kill their dad. Also, if you make them Padrians you have more of a reason for them to have been in Mobotropolis for some time: They could have moved in when the P3 established an early presence there. This is, of course, all random suggestion off the top of my head. Just because I suggest it doesn't mean you have to do it. @ssb - I can see you wanting to keep the age thing, and it'd be a rather interesting point to keep around since it makes yours the only other character with no memory of the dark ages/Robotnik (the other being Cloud x2). Unfortunately, a crashing meteorite is the kind of thing a lot of people notice and would fundamentally alter the setting. Extra constraints force creativity to work in different ways - I'm sure you can come up with some other backstory for a fully matured three-year old. The telekenesis doesn't have to be something she was born with, either. I already established that people aren't born with magic in this world, but rather that they study and learn it. My suggestion that she lived her entire existence in the unrenovated areas is something you might want to use as a springboard. I have a few ideas, but I'll let you come up with your own. Feel free to ask if you'd like mine As far as powers/equipment goes: Remember to keep the Telekenesis light. Telekenesis of massive objects is something the spires would definitely pick up on and would trigger a strong drain. Lifting of the self or others is something she can have as a talent, sure, but she'd need to be vary careful about when and where she uses it. On the guitar/instrument front, damaging laser weaponry is tightly regulated - only Defense Corps members even get access. It might make more sense as a laserlight show to enhance her performances.
Edited on Jan 25, 2012 2:49 am PT Edited 4 total times. AIM (sonicphc) MSN messenger (sonicphc@hotmaol.com)
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