Canopy

[ranaravel]

Out Of Character forum for the roleplay Canopy

This OOC thread has a few different purposes. One of the main ones is as a place to register interest or to ask questions! Please feel free to post those below. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Canopy is still a WIP and may be for some time. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. This means that I need to get everything down on page before opening things up. Oopsies!

The other purpose of this thread is to record all of the things that don't fit well into the main part of the roleplay. This includes what I will (eventually) list below.

> Climate
> Technologies
> Character sheet/bio template

And finally, feel free to use this as a place to chat and draw up collaborations! (If enough people find this interesting! O.O)

That's all! Hope to see you around.
~Rana

[Sovenric]

This roleplay inspires excitement, and for me I'm accruing a great hankering to spectate!
May your roleplay have many participants

[ranaravel]

Oh wow, a person! xD (was unexpected). Thanks for the kind words. :)

[VindicatedPurpose]

Hi,

This roleplay shows promise. Is this still running? I'd like to participate in whatever apparatus that I may, whether it be as a writer/roleplayer, or co-gamemaster.

[ranaravel]

Hi there! Yes, this is still running, if albeit slowly. (Away from a computer currently). I'm open to all of your suggestions above! A fellow gamemaster would be appreciated... what kind of tech/apparatus were you thinking? :) Throw me an idea. I've been trying to decide what the houses will be like, and what level of tech there would be.

I've settled on a technology I've so imaginatively named z-particles... a thing which acts as a base to make other things. So, if you mix it with mud/earth, you can make strong concrete-like substances. I figure that would be a standard issue-type thing, considering the spread of humanity across the stars. They'd need some kind of standard thing to give to the colonists so that they can survive, somehow.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know a little of what I've done so far in my notebook. Feel free to theorise away with whatever you want though. You can also tell me my idea sucks, if it does. ;) A girl open to criticism here. Haha xD

[VindicatedPurpose]

I'm rarely one to criticize unless you're specifically asking me to critique. I'm also a very flexible collaborator, more "go with the flow" than "my way or the highway."

That said, I usually determine the technology level and architecture based on a planet's proximity to the home worlds or the core planets. The farther away it is in terms of physical distance, communication, trade, or any other sort of relation, the less complex things will be.

The intro mentioned that Canopy was similar to Earth, and I imagine it having more of a jungle or forested world feel. Habitation could be like tree houses to merge with the environment, or cities atop deforested areas. The buildings could be arcologies, for high density but low impact on the environment. Something sleek and polished, plenty of chrome.

Z-particles are interesting, I read a little bit about it in the other forum. My only concern is whether or not it will have limitations.

I still have a lot of questions though, since I know this isn't close to complete.

[ranaravel]

Right, I have a computer now, woopie! :D

Canopy is a planet very, very far away from Earth. However, in this universe, there are major hub points of humanity spread throughout the Galaxy/universe. Theirs has been a slow spread through the stars, there isn't anything like warp speed, or travelling at the speed of light. It takes a ship a long, long time to get anywhere. Originally, Earth was supposed to be about 150+ light years away from Canopy. I don't know how precise or not to be, as I'm trying not to add tooo much information to a roleplay that may not even take wing. :S So exact distances are a bit flexible. I'm imagining that it takes just a bit longer than an average human lifetime (in this universe, roughly 150 yrs old) to reach the closest human-inhabited, important planet, the nearest hub, so to speak.

Either way, Canopy is on the fringes of society. It is not a highly funded space exploration mission, it is more of a 'let's find a place to shove a load of humans because there's too many of us to live in this quadrant anymore' type mission. So, the original crew of the ship that colonised the planet were given the usual supplies, and a way to get in contact with the nearest planet with humans on (now broken), but that was about it. They're people who were perhaps down on their luck, or wanted to explore but didn't have the qualifications for a proper, long distance space exploration/mapping mission.

In terms of habitation, what you said opened my eyes somewhat! Which is good. xD I like the idea of living in tree house-type things. Perhaps there could be a combination: where there is deforested rainforest built upon with large, standard buildings in the centre, where the ship originally landed. And then more towards the fringes of the City there are more tree house type buildings, after the humans stopped chopping down so many trees and switched to more bio friendly structures after the war.

The Z-particles do indeed have limitations, in that the settlers can't make any more. I'm imagining that at this point in history, the Z-particles have already all been used up in the construction of the original bits of the City. Now they're having to make do with whatever they can fashion themselves, true settler style. :P

[VindicatedPurpose]

Glad to hear back from you. I thought you had abandoned this and disappeared.

Anyway, I think what you have sounds interesting. I think you should probably drum up some interest for people to come check this out and maybe join.

I also read that you're still cooking when it comes to other lore related stuff like technology, maps, CS sheets, climate, and to use your own words "basically a lot of stuff." Are you going to handle all of that yourself? Or did you want any help with that?

[Crichton]

This sounds like a lot of fun. I'd love to participate as a player.

[ranaravel]

Nope, still here. :)

I would seriously love some help! However, I have the basis of most of the lore, etc. already written up offline in my notebook- it's just transferring it all over. However, I would ideally like to get this started. Perhaps I could add you as a GM and stories could start whilst I'm finishing off some of the more in-depth information? And then if you have any additional ideas you wanted to input, then of course go ahead.

And hooray! Crichton, it'd be wonderful to have you. :)

[VindicatedPurpose]

Ah, non-digital notes. Right then, I would't mind helping you out in the capacity of a co-GM. Do you have an ETA for when the lore and all this stuff will be completed and put up on here?

First things first though, you should probably finish the character skeleton sheets so people have something to work on as they start to join.

I'll create a thread in the Roleplayers Wanted forum with a link to this roleplay to get some more joining.

Edit: One more thing, you mentioned there was a Council? I figure I might be taking more of a back-seat behind the scenes role, managing NPCs instead of like a main character. Would the Council be important for like handing out certain missions/quests?

[ranaravel]

ETA: Hopefully I will have everything up in the next week, although I am going to be away for a couple of days for my graduation.

In terms of character sheets, the main things I'm focussing on are the character sheet framework, and the outline and description of the other playable race, the bios. I will definitely get that up before my graduation on Sunday/Monday!

Thanks! I'll add you as a GM. :D There is indeed a Council, who are NPCs. I would post a link, but unfortuantely I'm still not able to do that. :/ Instead, if you go to the 'Groups' section, and then look at 'Humans', you should find more detailed information there. The Council would definitely be important for handing out quests, as well as the Explorer's Guild. The Council basically manages the entire City.

Thanks for volunteering your time for my lil' roleplay. :) If you want, I really don't see why you can't have a character as well as being a mod, but of course, it's entirely up to you. I'm looking forward to the stories to follow!

[ranaravel]

I'll just leave this here for now, whilst I figure out where to put it.

The Hive and Grandfathers are explained on the Grandfathers group page, under 'Groups' (obviously). The Council is in the humans page.

[VindicatedPurpose]

Ah yeah I read that part before. I re-read it though, and I have to say that a lot of people may have overlooked this roleplay. You have some really awesome stuff here.

Okay, so I figure I'm pretty flexible. If you already have pre-made characters for the Council and you need me to play them I can do that. Or I can create some NPCs with you.

I think I'll have a lot of fun throwing curveball plots at the players. So there's this tool on the site called RPG write, its like Google Docs or Titanpad if you've ever used those? We can set up things in there, there's a nice little chat feature for us to write and talk in real time. However, there are alot bugs with it, so I don't know if we should use it. Anyway, I want to continue talking to you by PM, because well...I don't want to spoil things for potential players.

[Crichton]

What! You mean I must play to learn what happens next? Foiled again. In all seriousness though, this sounds great. Let me know when the show hits the road, I'll be here. Waiting. Watching.

[ranaravel]

Welp- human character sheet template is up! Go to the groups and it's at the bottom.

EDIT: The Bios are updated, and their character sheet is ready to go! Again, in groups.

For faceclaims, please be as lifelike as possible (although obviously it'll be difficult with the bios, lol). I don't mind anime, as long as the eyes/face/nose are not too over the top. Descriptions are a must. I look forward to seeing people around. :)

[VindicatedPurpose]

Hey I just wanted to let you know that I am working on the NPCs for the positions that I talked about in the PMs. Looking for faceclaims and filling out the middle section about Skills/Flaws/Personality/History etc.

[Crichton]

I'll be busy with dissertation stuff until the weekend, hoping to have a look at the info you've put up and create a character for you next week. I have a vague concept floating around up there, so it shouldn't take long.

[ranaravel]

Aah brilliant, you two. I'm looking forward to it!

[Summer in the City]

This is exciting. I'll be keeping an eye out, reading what you guys come up with, and hopefully writing soon if it keeps heading in the direction it seems to be. :)