So I've been poking for some two years at a paranoia based witch hunt RP. Some cut-off little fantasy-verse village out in the sticks with only the yearly/twice-yearly travelling traders as their contact with the outside world (plus the tax collector). Someone (randomly chosen) summoned a demon and either set it loose or lost control of it. Either way, it's out and causing problems. The Obvious Suspect is somewhat protected and may in fact be innocent. I was going to make this happen on another forum but I'm not as active there any more and it has a lot of less mature members who tend to take conflict between characters as personal attacks. I've got a bit of worldbuilding if anyone wants to see/add to it. Most of it's been on pause because I want it to be a conflict story but not a Personal Conflict and didn't have another community to bring it up to until now. Also more recently I've been write-craving a survival-y RP. Back when I was ~11 I used to run them all the time, usually with mild horror elements. Not much there yet, just some sort of calamity that strands a bunch of people in hostile, unfamiliar territory with evidence of a Bad Past. I'm just really fascinated by the way people act in life-or-death situations and like the not so much outright scariness as a general air of unease. And people who aren't afraid to have mortal characters or bad things to happen to them. -chinhands-
Oooh I have the perfect character for the witch hunt one I think! I'm a little scared to break him out though cause he's Romani and I don't know much about Romani. ETA: He's also a witch.
Well that one's a fantasy-verse so you don't have to be super accurate. The character I have in mind is both a witch and half Mysterious Travelling People, but they're closer to Pierce's Traders than the Roma. (Some of the worldbuilding I've got is that in the past few hundred years a bunch of old, powerful empires founded on demonic contracts split up. Some of them turned into smaller nations, but there are a lot of people who decided settled life was a Bad Idea, so there are lots of nomadic groups.)
So, most of the worldbuilding notes I've got for witch hunt RP: The world obviously has magic and magical beings, including demons. Humans, however, don't naturally have magic so they have to 'borrow' it from those who do in a pact or contract. Sometimes this means nature spirits or elementals or the Fair Folk (who are half-ghosts created from an old pact + their descendents) or the divine (there are a LOT of deities, but most of them don't care about humanity and are busy keeping things running). But those types aren't always willing to share their magic. Demons, on the other hand, is kind of a catch-all term for powerful magic beings that like to fuck with humanity. Since they like to screw with humanity, they're almost always willing to share their magic- for steep prices. Around the time humanity first started building cities and settling permanently they figured out that contracts with demons are all-binding, so if you figure out a sufficiently tight contract then you can't get screwed over. And since demons are way powerful, those who borrow magic from them also are! So a lot of the early civilizations were ruled by people with demon-pacts that were often renewed by their heirs or used to keep them alive beyond their natural lifespan. Magic was central, but it all came from demons and was bound to go south eventually. And it did. Spectacularly. And because a lot of the Great Empires were interconnected when one fell the others came crashing down and everything went to shit for a few decades. Like I said, some of them managed to pull together into smaller nations, but there are a lot of nomads and squabbling city-states and a lot of places that are magic-burned and inhospitable, especially the old capitals. Since demonic magic nearly being the downfall of civilization is still pretty fresh in peoples' minds, I mean the old major cities may as well be radioactive, most people are pretty wary of demons and the people who deal with them. There are non-demon pacted witches, who deal with other magical beings, but it's a lot harder and who's going to trust someone just because they say they're in a contract with something not a demon? In most places, including the nation where our village is, demon magic is punishable by death and witches are viewed with very heavy suspicion so most, even those in contracts with nature spirits and the like, practice in secret. Because, as I said, not everyone is going to believe you're not getting your magic from demons. It isn't helped by the fact there's a new religion going around, led by a baby goddess who really hates demons and charges her followers to actively hunt them and the people who deal with them.
Heh. Demons get away with steep prices for the magic because no one else is consistently offering; nature spirits and gods have other things to do, and humans can't pay enough for it to be helpful. Nice and plausible. Plus probably a couple higher-ups in the churches have things worked out with gods, but only them, so the poor and desperate have basically no choice but demons... which the fortunate will blame them for. Mmm, classism. Given that the only outsiders who tend to come bay are the traders and the tax collector, I can't help but wonder if the summoned demon was contracted to get rid of the tax collector.
Yessss that is pretty much exactly what I was going for. As for the tax collector... I'm going to leave it up to whoever gets picked to decide why they did it (and even if it was intentional or because they made a weak contract and it escaped) but it wouldn't surprise me.
-does a happy little dance- Awesome now I just need MORE BODIES. I mean uh. Yeah I can't salvage that one.
I've never RPed before, and can't promise quality, but I'd like to give it a shot. Premise is really interesting.
I have a couple Pathfinder types I can bring in. My main IS a witch, so she's a no, but I do have a JUSTICE AND GLORY FOR THE LIGHT, SMITE THE UNBELIEVERS dwarven warpriest I can bring into the fray.
i'm really into this premise!! though what sort of level of involvement are you seeking here, where would the actual writing occur, and would it be paragraph, script style, etc. . .? i'm working on a few other writing projects right now and dont wanna bog myself down with too much, is all :"0 also i haven't RP'd in aaaages, though i'd like to get back into the swing of it
I have a character I developed for a Pathfinder game that didn't happen, I feel like I could possibly use her for this? I would have to change her backstory possibly. She's also a cat person which might also need to change XD I'm not great at RPing though but I will do my best >.>;
