I just wanted to add, I don't think I have the know how or the capability to really help get things organized or started, but I'd love to participate once the ball goes a rolling!
If we ever do a Lain inspired game, I call dibs on doing Present Day, Present Time for my summary. :D
A decent handful of people have posted characters in the intro thread now, so should we start discussing how we're going to rock this? Let's see: botanist, Sufferist rebel, 2x makeup artists, janitor, mediculler, propagandist, bureaucrat. We seem more set up for a pomp-and-propaganda-type rp than a warships-and-lasers one, and everyone except the rebel looks to be fairly well-disposed towards the Empire. Maybe we could set it on a space station/spaceport/general spaceship docking hub? I freely admit that this is my massive bias for giant space objects showing itself, but it allows for a more stable set-up whilst also giving us the option of travelling through space (whereas with something like a colonised planet, we'd be stuck in one place all the time). It also lets new characters be introduced really easily, because if we can't figure out a way to make them plot-relevant we can just say "so a new spaceship docked and this new dude got tangled up in shenanigans somehow".
Troll job title suggestion: janitormentor. Deep Space 9, troll edition? I'll second this as a good setting for the cast and ideas so far.
If we de a human/troll integrated society for a SBURB/SGRUB game, maybe? If nothing else, humans could be sheltering a refugee population of trolls, and if they smuggled out one or two mother grub larvae, or figured out some other way of reproducing... There could still be viable limes.
oh man. I didn’t mean to imply 'hey cater to me'. Meant it more as my speacil snowfalke fantroll isn't canon compatible. Gah. Sorry.
No worries, I didn't take it that way! I enjoy figuring out how to make things work; I saw a puzzle and tried to solve it. All else fails, it's another suggestion for another fantroll game besides Space Opera. :D
i disagree. there's enough wiggle room in canon for a limeblood to have avoided getting culled one way or another. (actually. in some sense these RP settings are AUs, so. even if they wouldn't've made it in canon they could fit in somehow.) i like this!! my only quibble is that planet doesn't necessarily equal stuck in one place. planets are big and contain many places to visit, and trolls totally have enough tech to get around quickly enough for globe-trotting adventures. (to be clear i still prefer the space station idea. i'm just being pedantic.)
Space stations come with optional planet for said spacestation to orbit, and people who prefer spaceships can have their ships dock there.
Well, planets tend to be slightly limited in terms of "and then we travelled to a new planet to rain down fire and oppression on its pathetic worthless inhabitants, and then we had a mindscrew-y encounter with a giant space horrorterror, and then we got attacked by a band of SPACE PIRATES". I am Very Enthusiastic about sci-fi plots I'm sorry.
hey, worldbuilding questions - 1) are there other species (humans, carapacians, non-canon based aliens, etc.) around in the space opera AU (like, i know no one is planning to play a non-troll, but for NPCs/general background info)? if so, how are they related to the alternian empire? is it an integrated empire? are there rival empires/federations? have they been subjugated by the trolls? are the trolls currently working to subjugate them? 2) general assumptions about the alternian empire - how competent is it, or is it overrun with bureaucratic waste and bs? is everyone forced into military service for life, or can you retire out to become a settler or something? how big brother-y is it? if we go with the space station idea: 3) how big/important is it? like, are we talking main hub of the empire or smaller but still busy backwater station? 4) how closely tied to the empire is it? like, is it closely run/monitored by the alternian government or does it kinda do its own thing with about as much reporting back as you'd expect from your average airport? is it military or civilian? 5) is it orbiting a planet? if so, similar stuff as 3&4 but for the planet - how much of it is colonized (is it colonized?), border world or central, etc. also what sort of planet is it in terms of biomes and what stuff people do there (military stuff? commercial? if it's commercial are peeps like, mining or farming grubs or what?) 6) how frequently do people arrive/leave at the station? the planet? 7) how much security is there? ...er, sorry. i tend to get a little too into worldbuilding. XP
I tend to work off the assumption that there are other species around but none so technologically advanced as the trolls. (Does the empire ever not work to subjugate and oppress other species?) Might be interesting to have another space-faring race floating around, though - it'd probably create interesting Plot things both in terms of explosions and politics if the trolls are being antagonised by something they can't just nuke into oblivion with their superior firepower. Really it depends on what sort of rp we want to go for. Hilarious shenanigans which usually end in disaster? The Empire is a bureaucratic red-tape nightmare where you need to fill out forms in triplicate just to take a dump and get culled for improper filing methods. Serious-business space politicking? The Empire is ruthless and terrifyingly efficient. Second question depends on what the Empire's deal is. Is there an active focus on expansion and subjugation of other species? Uses other species as slave labour while pushing trolls into the military so they can constantly expand and conquer (this would... probably result in the Empire being incredibly unstable as the result of spreading its forces out so far and trying to hold so much territory at once, which might be fun if we want to play through a massive period of political upheaval but would be a nightmare for anything more light-hearted). Does the Empire just hang around in space just doing its thing, and only expands at a pace it can cope with? There are probably colonised planets full of farmer trolls just doing their thing. Huh, come to think of it - wasn't the reason for the adults leaving the planet so Condy could prevent them having any solid power base from which to mount a rebellion? Makes the latter option less likely. The aggressive-expansion option might even be a thing we could do in conjunction with similarly-advanced-aliens: expanding so rapidly was something the trolls could do because they never had any real competition, but now suddenly here's a legitimate threat, and everybody's got to scramble to figure out how they deal with it whilst being so scattered and trying to hold more territory than it can actually deal with. ...I miiight be taking this slightly too seriously. I tend to think of things in terms of "epic space novel", so I'm liable to come up with a lot of ideas which would require way more elaborate co-operation and careful plotting/editing than a loose collection of rpers will probably want to deal with. Just rap me over the head if I get lost in dreams of impractical grandeur.
If ever there was a forum with a general population that won't mind worldbuilding, I think this is it. 2) For figuring out what the modern Alternian Empire is like, I look mostly at alpha Earth and Derse under Condy. Spoiler: brainstorming my reasoning Alpha Earth specifically means looking at Jane: She goes about a mix of preparing for the responsibilities of adult life and pursuing her hobbies, seeming almost a normal human girl, besides how she casually expects assassination attempts. The dystopia is subtle and creeping in, not yet blatant. That cliche about a frog in boiling water applies. Condy's order depends on a few things. 1: the ability to kill all trolls but her with her lusus. Any would-be rebellions are either ignorant of that factor or restrict themselves somehow to avoid that. 2: the use of chucklevoodoos to reinforce fear of disobedience and manipulate the populace (like how she uses subliminal messages on Earth). I suspect a lot of the strange shit in alpha Earth is the same model of control she used with trolls. 3. Directing their fear and hatred outward at alien species. Karkat buys into a lot of the propagand, and so it doesn't occur to him to want to escape to a quiet life. He talks about the honor and glory of rising through the ranks as an unlikely hero, the mutant so skilled the Empress might give him a pass. Aside from the mutant thing, I suspect this worldview is what the empire wants of its recruits. Meanwhile on Derse, Cindy only recently took control be deposing the queen. She seemed annoyed by how long DD took to put the ring on, but (like with Roxy refusing to get the matriorb) she seems to expect people to drag their feet, resist commands, or pursue their own crap before following orders. She's a murderous tyrant, but she's whimsical as hell sometimes. Alternians have a clear caste hierarchy with blood color, but the kid trolls don't all seem clear on obeying it. Most of the lowerbloods are passive aggressive and surly when anyone tries to order them around. And it's not like murder is only for adult trolls, there's culling and revenge cycles and FLARP going on even with the trolls we know. These young trolls have known people who are dead now. , So how competent is it? Only as competent as the commanders give a shit and their officers obey. Between the mirthful murderous whims of the juggalo church regularly killing parts of the command structure, and the way passive aggression and psychic powers both being common among lowbloods, I bet the only thing they're efficient at is killing. Think Star Wars, when Vader stomps around murdering admirals in temper tantrums. The murderous ancient religion (ex-jedi vs jugalo) is respected out of fear, not because it's widely useful. So with that... 1. I vote that other species are considered less than trolls. Rival empires, subjugated species, and plenty of new frontiers to bravely explore and exterminate. Some survive by being of service, so other alien characters could make sense. 3. Non-main seems better to me. If we're in a frontier region, we have more flexibility about rebel-affiliated characters trying to schmooze in for trade and leave before getting caught, the ability to have nearby alien worlds, and we don't have to make specific decisions about central command yet. Will think more about the others, especially after more people chime in.
I totally agree about it being in a non main area. Probably really cut off too, so we can develop like juryrigged command systems and stuff that works for us. (Because I think the idea of latecomers/trolls from main areas showing up and being like wtf, this is not how I was trained, is hilarious.)
Oooh this is looking lovely, I definitely want to play too... I will have to see which of my fantrolls I can bring in :)
