Dystopian revolution?

Blackfridayrule · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Blackfridayrule** on Thu Jan 31, 2013 5:24 am

As the title states, I think I wanna try and develop some kind of semi-medieval dystopian world to roleplay in, the idea for which came from a song I was listening to in the car today....

We're passing through this world so fast girl
Close your eyes and tap three times
No place like home will ever compare
Someday we shall say goodbye
Shut your eyes just one more time girl
We won't fall for no more lies
Our problems here are temporary
Ordinary, never worry

Hold on - baby hold on
This place is not our home
So let's hold on- baby hold on
It's not where we belong

Head up high - Hold the line
Our fire inside must never die

We're traveling strangers with our fortunes
Growing stronger everyday
We'll stay up late and raise our voices
Knowing things won't stay the same
Ancient paths reveal our stories
Wrote in blood and left to read
All the letters of the past
We're the first to be the last

Hold on - baby hold on
This place is not our home
So let's hold on - baby hold on
It's not where we belong

And my thought process was something like this.... "oh, I love this song. Huh, reminds me of one of my characters. Reminds me of that dream I had with him in it...OHH." and then i got this epic idea based off of a dream I had a while back in which my character, a wanted thief/criminal, abducts a girl to use as leverage for his escape. The moment he's safe, however, he realizes the scope of what he's done and somehow tries to right the situation (he's a bit of an antihero, but his heart's in the right place.). And then I remembered the book, The Giver, in which there's a highly oppressive society. From what I remember, in the book they gave their citizens drugs that controlled their hormones and in other ways they kept them from experiencing things like color.

The result I came up with is this.....

Either my character (Rohaan) has been outside this society always and has evaded attempts of capture, or perhaps he used to be and through a fluke remembers this and flushes his system of the drugs they put in the water mains that keep people compliant and forgetful, perhaps even unable to experience things like color, but I dunno yet. However it happens, he is free of the government control and is trying to escape the city. He is caught, however, and snatches some innocent to use as a shield. Maybe this person has some kind of social significance? Not sure. Either way, he escapes the city and takes him/her along. He is heartbroken by the level of oppression and passionately does what he can to destroy their hold, beginning with his newly met captive.

I also think it would be cool to do a steam punk-tech-level in a fantasy setting, and perhaps these drugs suppress non-human traits and/or powers?

Point is, I really wanna play with this. So if you're interested, a literate writer who can write substantial, meaty posts and can do it relatively often, please please please, let's start this. I'm totally open to ideas.

Amarkov · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Amarkov** on Thu Jan 31, 2013 2:48 pm

Color me interested! Your worldview sounds irresistibly intriguing. I'd want to discuss it a little more before diving right in, just to make sure I understand it all, but so far everything sounds really great. I like responding to posts as soon as I see them go up, so I'm a pretty active writer, and I've been roleplaying for 10 years so I like to put detail and substance into my posts (usually 2-4 paragraphs per post). Let me know if I sound like a good match!

Blackfridayrule · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Blackfridayrule** on Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:40 pm

Sure! Let's work something out!

The world I'm thinking of is really "unfinished", so it's got lots of room for your ideas. In fact, most of this I'm making up as I write.

I'm thinking the land is a wide expanse that is mostly controlled by an oligarchy, each member rules his own province like a kingdom. However, there is still a national law that applies to all provinces and the spaces between them.

Speaking of, the are spaces between each province that make up a wilderness. On a large scale, there are no peoples who exist outside the walls of the provinces. However, there are bands of rogues that exist secretly. They lay low and are few and far between. The wilderness, having little interaction with people, is very wild and dangerous to those who don't know it, but homey enough to those who can navigate its expanse.

I think before the total takeover there was a fear of non-humans or of those with special gifts, and that could possibly be what led people to let the oligarchy take over the way they did. There are drugs put into the water wells and into the crops that keep everyone sort of docile, forgetful of their former lives if they were old enough to have one, and crime is at a striking minimum.

Technology...is mixed. This is up for discussion, but I'm thinking pseudo-medieval? If that makes any sense. Basically....we can make it up as we go.

Amarkov · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Amarkov** on Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:12 pm

Sounds good to me! If I start writing anything that doesn't jive with the worldview very well just let me know. I'm very good at taking constructive criticism so I promise I won't get offended if I get corrected back to the proper path :)

So would I be able to just kind of make things up as I go? Nothing grand and sweeping, but as far as the name of the current province in which my character lives, what they specialize in as far as economic goods to trade, the general "feel" of that area of town? If so I might be ready to start fairly soon, once we figure out a few plot events that will be happening early on so I can plan for those.

This sounds pretty awesome and here are some of my budding ideas (all of which are totally up for debate and feedback):

My character: I don't think I want her to be a psychic herself, but once she finds out that people with powers are being oppressed (after the escape and once she detoxes from whatever drug they've been pumping through the water-mains) she'll want to do something to help. If your character kidnaps her in order to escape, should she be someone semi-connected in the province in question? If so I think she'll have no siblings or mother, but maybe a father who's a sort of high-ranking official under the main leaders of the oligarchy. Heck, if I can frequently bounce ideas off you about how their governments are run, he could even be a member of the ruling oligarchy itself. I'm fine with him being outside that immediate sphere, though.

Your character: Has he lived in the province in question his whole life, or is he trapped here for some reason? I got the impression that, as a thief, he'd be going from place to place and maybe just got stuck here in a bad situation. I just want to make sure I'm not taking over the first setting too completely, if your character grew up there and the setting of the first location in question would shape his character at all. Hope that made sense!

Blackfridayrule · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Blackfridayrule** on Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:53 pm

Exactly--this province is all yours, seeing as how your character lives there. Take the lead and I shall follow. I super like the idea of your character being connected to someone higher up, but whether they're directly involved with the oligarchy or just in its outer circle is up to you. As for how it's run....not sure. Again, that's a kind of "make it up as you go" sorta deal when it comes to anything beyond the fact that they rule their own individual provinces and yet collaborate with each other to form national laws. I would imagine also that an outlaw from one province would be flagged as a criminal in another as well.

My character....I think he once lived in an island not terribly far off the southeastern coast. Small and secluded, his tribe (for a tribe it really is, it's very small) held out against the oppression. Word reached the rest of the nation of their existence (they are non human) and they sought to wipe them out. Through a series of events, Rohaan was orphaned and separated from his people, only to be picked up by a band of thieves. It's leader, Berlin, took him under his wing and together they took from the fortunate whatever they wanted. During one such escapade, Rohaan was caught, drugged, and then he eventually got clean. He does not know what became of his homeland, and Berlin does not know what became of him.

So he's been there for a little while but he's spent much more time on the outside.

Amarkov · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Amarkov** on Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:20 am

Sounds perfect! Do you like to RP in the roleplay tab, in a forum thread, or through PMs? I can start writing up my character's introductory post anytime if you want me to start us off. It'll just be a slice of daily life for her and an opportunity for me to describe some part of the town :)

Blackfridayrule · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Blackfridayrule** on Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:28 am

That'll be perfect. Umm, how about a thread style?

Amarkov · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Amarkov** on Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:37 am

You got it! I'll post the thread here when I've got it up and running. Oh, what did you want to call this? The name of the song that inspired it, or something else?

Blackfridayrule · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Blackfridayrule** on Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:52 am

Hm, yeah, that sounds good, let's call it Hold On. Can't think of anything better to call it. Link me to your post when you make it--chances are I'll be up late enough to answer back.

Amarkov · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Amarkov** on Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:54 am

hold-t79658.html

Here we go! Didn't feel like going too much into detail for a first post but we can world-build together as we go :) Let me know if anything feels "off" of course.

Blackfridayrule · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Blackfridayrule** on Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:37 am

You're good! Imma put up my post and likely wont post again till tomorrow when I have a computer and not an iPad to write with...

Dystopian revolution?

a topic in Interest Checks, a part of the RPG forum.

Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Re: Dystopian revolution?

Post a reply

Make a Donation

Who is online