Utterly Mad

Spoiler: Teaser (hover to show)

You step out of the U-Haul truck and onto the quiet street. The perfectly blue sky hangs above you like an ocean, with its one yellow ship floating towards the horizon. It smells of freshly cut grass, and the only sounds you can hear are the sprinklers and your truck settling down on the curb. Your house- a quaint, two story affair with a white facade and, according to the realtor, gas heating and an "absolutely breathtaking living room" -stands before you, looking on as every other house did on the street. In fact, every other house on the street looked exactly like your own. The same one chimney, the same paint color, even the front porches were all in the same place with the same structure. It was a common choice to make cookie-cutter houses, the method made building them cheaper and faster. Still, you could end up at the wrong doorstep if you didn't pay attention to the houses's address.

There are no people about. It's three-o-clock on a Friday, so it's likely they were all at work. Their children would be coming back from school around now, but it was also the middle of summer, and they were out at the arcades or playgrounds or one another's houses, playing the weeks away. You walk up the curb, putting your key into the door's lock. As you grab the handle, a rumble of thunder passes overhead. The sounds of the day suddenly become muffled, and it's almost as if the sky itself becomes a bit darker. Checking over your shoulder, the world is still as normal as it's always been. The sprinklers, the sun, your truck, as normal as could be.

Always, always, so very normal.

So, this is what I'm going for in my new RP idea: Suburbia. The players have just moved into a particularly unassuming neighborhood in a quiet, suburban town. Everything is normal, the sun is shining, and the birds sing their merry song each morning. It's not that weird, either; the people are nice enough, and all the clocks tick the right way in time. However, as the players will begin to learn, with each passing day things have been getting rather strange. The first bout of changes have already happened: A string of disappearances in the neighborhood with no trace of a suspect or even a struggle. And that's only the beginning.

Coming to a forum near you sooner or later.

It's time for a Hibou Co. Certified Development Update

On Suburbia

So, my plan for the RP is to be a little more open ended than TSS was. The players will be free to do pretty much whatever they want. That doesn't mean the RP won't have plot, however. I'll be dropping bits and pieces of leads and hooks for the chunks of plot I'm putting around the town. A lot of the stuff is pretty wacky, and it's hard to tell who you can trust around here, but hopefully it will be engaging and interesting.

On to the Game Mechanics

KEEPING TRACK OF ALL YOUR MARBLES

There are three main stats you want to keep track of. RESPECT, CONNECTIONS, and FRIENDLINESS. Each one is affected by your job, as well as different events here in Suburbia. But before we get to that, let me explain these stats.

RESPECT is how much people respect you. It'll help keep your SUSPICION low and make people more likely to do what you tell them to. This is a more forceful trait, and abusing it can cause it to become lower. You can earn respect by doing good deeds around the neighborhood, showing your aptitude as a leader, or just doing insanely well at your job. Do things that people could respect, and your RESPECT stat will increase.

CONNECTIONS is how well connected you are. CONNECTIONS will help you get information, promotions, and favors in Surburbia. You can get connections through your job or attending social events that occur in the neighborhood. Using your CONNECTIONS will cause the stat to decrease, though, so you'll want to use them sparingly. Or not.

FRIENDLINESS is how well you get along with other people. This makes people more likely to talk with you in the first place, pay more attention to your good deeds, and will help increase your CONNECTIONS and RESPECT quickly. FRIENDLINESS can't be used directly, and as such it simply decays over time. Keep it up by talking with other people, sending gifts, and being a good neighbor.

IT'S NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND LOLLIPOPS

There are some negative stats you'll also want to keep track of in Suburbia.

SUSPICION is how suspicious you appear to other people. This can rise if you don't participate in your daily ROUTINE very often. People who are suspicious of you will be more likely to report you to the authorities if you do something unusual, and people are less likely to trust you if you are very SUSPICIOUS. Keep it low to avoid the eye of the law and maintain the support of your neighbors. Or at least prevent them from kicking your door down and torching your house.

INJURY is how injured you are. There's no health potions in Suburbia, so you'll have to either see a doctor, go to the hospital, or just rest at home to heal your wounds. This is also used to factor in sickness you might pick up as you go around, like tetanus or the flu. If it gets too high, you might pass out or even die. Big surprise there, right?

INSANITY is, as you could imagine, how sane or insane you are. The higher it gets, the less sane you are. For the majority of the game, if you play things safe, this will be rather low. As it gets higher, however, you might start experiencing nightmares, hearing voices, full visual hallucinations, or even black out for short periods of time. If it gets too high, you'll go absolutely bonkers and lose control of your character for a short while. This is increased by witnessing or experiencing things that are very, very out of the norm. This can be lowered by seeing a psychologist, talking with friends, enjoying a day at the park, or anything else that brings your character back to earth.

And remember, all your main stats can be positive or negative, and will affect your Suburbia experience accordingly. Keep them high, and your experience here in beautiful Suburbia will be fine and dandy.

In the next update I'll get into more depth about player jobs and maybe something about the actual town.

Hibou,

THE HYPE TRAIN IS REAL!

Also, can we get some more jobs maybe like a journalist.

As Lorknis said...

THE HYPE TRAIN IS REAL!

Is TSS Twin Suns? If it is hibou plz.

Time for a Hibou Co. Certified Development Update

On Technomancer: The Lost

So, here's what I've got from the last time I mentioned this concept

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Players are woken up out of a deep cryo sleep with little memory of their past, or how they got to where they are. Only one thing is certain: They are different.
The players are given a special machine, implanted in their body, known as the Harmonic Electromagnetic Manipulator, or the H.E.M. This device has been tuned to a certain harmonic wavelength that allows the user to manipulate a certain element. These wavelengths are known as Harmonics.
Harmonics can be things like Phosphor, the ability to create and guide fire. Or  Suture, the ability to mend flesh almost instantly. These powers do work in reverse, as well. Phosphor technomancers can snuff out fires and even lower the temperature of the air, and Suture technomancers can re-open wounds and even turn flesh necrotic at their touch.

I don't actually have a setting, just a bunch more different Harmonics and some pseudo-science explaining how the H.E.M. implants actually work that I'll flesh out at a later date.

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And it's time to flesh out that pseudo-science and list some more Harmonics.

So, just to get it out of the way, let's talk about science.

Technomancer isn't running on a very hard science setting, unlike what I've been doing for TSS. Regardless, the HEM implants still work somehow. The main module, a compact supercomputer, is set into the body of the user in a certain body part. Some users opt to put it near their brains, increasing their ability to control the powers they wield. Put inside the torso, and the computer is much harder to knock out of operation. Inside their arms, the computer can use less power in sending signals through the nervous system and use that surplus energy to up the juice of the user's powers.

The Compact Harmonic Quantum Processor, the main computer for the Harmonic system, works not with bits but with qubits, as is characteristic of quantum computers. Instead of processing each memory qubit as a one or zero, it processes it as if the qubit were in all states at once, giving it four times the processing power of any conventional computer. It also makes it sound really cool.

The power source for the Harmonic system is a fluid known simply as Harmonic Fluid. The fluid is what makes the advanced manipulation of the physical world possible. When it is first produced, it is in an unset state. When exposed to a source of vibration, however, it will become set to that frequency. Now, when it is activated by running an electrical current through it, it will quickly vaporize into a mixture of chlorofluorocarbons, methyl chloride, and ozone. This gas is usually released through the users windpipe when they exhale. More importantly, it releases massive amounts of energy that is tuned to its set frequency. That energy can then manipulate elements of the world in ways that normal humans could not, such as manifesting fire or healing wounds.

Finally, the business end of the Harmonic system is the Inducer. Typically, Inducers are set in the hands of the user, where the energy produced by the sublimation of Harmonic Fluid can be harnessed into useful forms of change. It does this by directing the energy through fiber optic wire into either the palm or fingertips depending on the choice of the user. Inducers are helpful in their use of semiconductors to help control the flow of the harmonic energy coming through and keep the user's hands from exploding. Quite handy.

And now, let's get to the wonderful world of Harmonics.

Here's a couple you already know about,

Phosphor - Allows the user to manifest and manipulate fire and, to a lesser extent, explosions. This can be used in a variety of applications, but for most technomancers, it's used in its most raw and spectacular form. Flamethrowers and fireballs are the most useful within the armory of a Phosphor, but other applications can be found in and out of combat with enough creativity and knowledge of the environment.

Suture - This Harmonic is one of a family of Harmonics that don't explicitly have a use as a weapon. Sutures can fix up wounds very quickly on themselves, and some who have become quite in-tune with their HEM can even sustain themselves for brief periods of time while on fire or taking fire. This power extends beyond themselves, however, and Sutures can heal other fleshy friends and even do the opposite for fleshy enemies.

Mind - A strange one indeed, Minds can manipulate the short term and long term behaviors of those around them. Not much is known about the extent of these powers, but a Mind that has had enough experience using their HEM can become a force to render armies not only to their knees, but even turn them on eachother.

And there's more coming.

Technomancer certainly looks interesting, I'd probably go for being a Suture. Do you have other types of Harmonics planned?