DV Dream Warriors [Concept Thread]

[Oneironaut Zero]

So, I'm trying to think of a way to bring an interesting battle RP back to DV, and I think I may be on to something. The format will be set in individual spars, much like the Matrix RP (for those of you who remember it), but instead of having a typical, storybook theme/background, I've come up with something a little more DV-related. Lucid Dream combat. We will play out battles as if we are sharing lucid dreams with our opponents. The battlefields will be of our own subconscious, and our abilities will be limited only to our imaginations. And of course, you're asking yourself: "How the Hell is that ever supposed to work? What's the point of a game where anyone can do whatever they want??" Well, I've been trying to come up with a way that can throw a loose framework of rules behind the game, that will actually incorporate our own lucid dream / control strengths and weaknesses. What I came up with is pretty crude, of course, but I think it could be an interesting idea - or maybe perfected upon. I took a list of 20 of the most common dream abilities I could think of, and I numbered them from 20-1; 20 being the ability that I'm most accustomed to, and comfortable with - 1 being the one I barely (if ever) have used. Flight - 17 Telekinesis - 20 Energy Blasts - 14 Fire Manipulation -19 Earth/Landscape Manipulation - 3 Water Manipulation - 2 Air Manipulation - 9 Electricity Manipulation - 1 Gravity Manipulation (non-flight) - 5 Shape-Shifting - 8 Phasing/Intangibility - 11 Summoning People - 7 Summoning Objects - 10 Super human strength - 16 Invulnerability - 15 Super speed - 13 Hand-to-Hand Combat - 18 Firearms - 12 Miscellaneous Magic - 4 Teleportation - 6 So with these stats, whomever I choose to fight is going to have to pit their stats against mine, if the situation ever presents itself, within the RP. However, as with most T1, the object will be to out-maneuver your opponent, and write them into positions that they can't get out of, logically. So, when that can be done, these stats may not play that big a role, which is ideal. But when it comes down to certain, specific situations (an energy blast vs a telekinetic defense, for example), then the stats will come into play. Now, going even further: along side these types of techniques, there will be a couple of core attributes, that you will also have to rate: Offensive Control - How good you are with actually making things happen in the dream. How well you impose your will. Offensive control is basically how good your attack strength will be. Whenever you're attacking, your attack strength will be factored in, as to how much damage you might inflict on the opponent. If you're someone who's rather good at 'just doing' things, while lucid, then rank this the highest of the four. Defensive Control - How good you are with fending off an intense dream, whether standing up to your nightmares or surviving through any other number of harrowing situations. Defensive control will represent how strong your battle defense is - whether or not someone throwing a car at you, when all you can do is block, is still going to hurt you; etc. The higher you rank this, the better you should be (in your actual dreams) at getting your enemies to 'back off', or fending off their attacks. Awareness - How well you can keep from getting distracted, and stay focused on the dream, your consciousness of it and that you are, ultimately, in control of it. Awareness will guage how well you can handle all of the shit that your opponent is going to be throwing at you, and still remain lucid, and on top of the situation. With low awareness of the dream state, you will start to panic at the danger of battle, thinking it to be an actual life and death situation, rather than a battle that you have nearly complete control of. Clarity/Stability - How solidified you are, in the dream. The longer (and crazier) you fight, the more your clarity of the dream is going to start waning. Your punches will be missing their targets. You're not going to be able to see things very well. Over time, you may just completely lose your grip on the entire battle (and be forced to forfeit? Not sure, yet. Wanna think of something to do with this concept.) This more or less represents stamina. If you are good at stabilizing your dream, and regularly practice it, give this a high rank. I might throw in a way to gain longevity by doing a stablization technique, during the fight (whch will probably be a set number of posts and cost a turn, leaving you vulnerable to attack. Not quite sure how that might work, yet). So, in order, I would rank mine: 3 4 1 2 Partcipants would sign in on a thread where they can post their starting stats and something of a short summary of their past lucid dreaming experience. Types of battles they might have fought in, different situations, etc. Links to their dream journals would be encouraged. I'm thinking that, after some time, players might be able to change their stats' numerical orders, as their real lucid dreaming experiences might have changed. Of course, like with the dream journals, we would be going on the honor system, here. This is all in fun, anyway, so there would be no reason for anyone to falsify their abilities for this, I would hope. Players would call each other out (anyone on Dream Views, that is willing to participate and make a profile), and then RP battle in a no-holds-barred, text-based battle, where pretty much anything can happen. The fighting format would be a lot like the old Matrix RP battles, that were around here, for a while. Basically, T1 Turn-based/Paragraph style. Gotta work a little on how the magic and distance formats might go, as far as paragraph length or whatever, but it's all just an idea, at the moment. The stats will servce as a (loose) backbone, to what is or isn't fair, within the fights. Asking for everyone to just have a little fun, here, and try to play your battles to the stats you chose, to keep things interesting. And this isn't 'character RP', so play yourselves - well, your dream selves, anyway. Act like yourself. If you have problems with certain things, in your lucids, acknowledge them in battle. If you are familiar with any particular dream strengths you have, acknowledge these, too. Also, don't be afraid to try something new. Expand your mind a little, and throw some crazy moves out there. The stats will be there to give us all an idea of how successful your attack or defense will be against the other person. I think a fun part of this is that it is not only flexing our RP and writing skills, but potentially, our dreaming skills, too. Thinking of ways to get out of the battle situations could very well open ourselves to new techniques and ideas to try, while lucid dreaming. It's another reason I thought it better to keep this as a "play as yourself" battle game, instead of having characters. I'm pretty interested to see whether or not these battles, or the content within them, work their way into our dreams. As far as the environment, I would say whomever is having a challenge issued to them, has the advantage of picking the environment. The catch is, the battlefield has to be a place that the defender has actually dreamed about (even better, if the place has to be mentioned in the person's journal ). That defender can then completely set up the scene, and mention any obstacles or whatever, during the first post. Of course, there should also be judges, who will keep track of fight progress, and chime in on any disputes between whether or not a move or reaction was logical, given the stats and situation. Will figure all that out, later. Like I said, this was just an idea. Thought I'd throw it out there, and see what you all thought.

[Siиdяed]

Good to see you active here again, O.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Thanks, man.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Still working out some ideas for this. For those who aren't really all that familiar with text-based combat, here's a pretty good reference: T1 Rules and Guidelines for the Modern Day Role Player Ideally, the style being used with this would be T1MP (scroll down to style restrictions, in the link above^). Magic is kind of a tricky thing to govern, in these types of bouts. I've been thinking of the best way to do it fairly, so anyone else is free to chime in, on how they thing this system could be improved: All abilities, 1-20, you can do Basic magic attacks with. These are smaller scale attacks, and may not cause much more damage than a melee attack. They can be executed without taking a post/turn to prep them. They can be used on the fly, at any time in battle. Generally, these effects are no bigger than the person performing them. Throwing small fireballs; lifting a TV with telekinesis; shooting electricity out of your hands; all of those would be basic attacks. Abilities 11-20 also allow you Advanced moves, which must be prepped for 1-turn. They are much stronger attacks, and generally much bigger. Calling huge bolts of lightning down from the skies; ripping off a section of highway and throwing it at your opponent; a fireball the size of a bus; bringing large objects to life; etc, are all examples of advanced magic. Any 'enhancing' abilities that stay with the characters, like superspeed; body morphing; super strength; etc. must be prepped for one turn, since they could be so advantageous, in the long run. After that initial prep, the skill is invoked, and they don't have to prep anymore unless their concentration is broken (i.e.; in a position where it would be illogical to assume they could keep the skill going) and they lose the skill during the fight. We may incorporate the 11-20 stat thing with this, somehow, as well. Maybe make it to where 11-20 rated enhancing abilities last longer or something. Dunno. If the ability is a direct heavy attack (energy blasts, pyro-attacks, etc.), and the opponent plans on blocking on parrying an attack with a force of their own, they must use at least the same amount of prepping lines of text that the attacker did to execute his move, in order to defend (so if you are blocking a Heavy attack, you have to be in a situation where you could logically build up a defense against it - probably with one of your own heavy skills - or else you have to concede the hit. Thinking of maybe a sort of point system for this, too. Something like bouts being set to either 5 or 10 hits, before a winner is declared (provided you don't execute a move that completely subdues the opponent), and maybe limited basic attacks to one point, and advanced attacks to 2. I dunno. Still brainstorming. May throw out a demo battle soon...

[Hukif]

This is a pretty awesome idea! "subscribes" Had someting similar going on a few years back in another forum, the basic rules were no god-mods, only three lucid powers/battle (So there were no restrictions), the mod of the fight would choose both the location and any other alternate rules (Like no using hostages), then we would fight it out in chat and the mod of the fight would decide who did better/won if there was no consensus between the players; of course this was not RP oriented.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Thanks, Hukif! Yeah, I used to do a lot of RP in Yahoo!, ages ago, which kind of went the same way (but was more RP-oriented, of course). It was definitely one of my favorite hobbies, at the time. Haha. Just trying to keep some of that flair going, around here, because it can be so much fun when people get involved in it. I'm really trying to keep some dream-like elements built into the framework of the game, so I think letting one of the dreamers choose (and describe) the setting from one of their previous dreams could work. And sense scenery often changes, both people can write in different elements of the landscape, while their going throughout the battle, but can't, say, write about something just 'being there', in the middle of another person's attack or defense, in an attempt to influence the outcome of the move. But passively writing about things in the background (even if in order to take advantage of them, later), would be allowed. And yeah, most of this is (hopefully) gonna work itself out through logic, between the players. Judges (maybe we'll assign some), ideally, should play as minimal a role as possible, but should always be able to lend an impartial decision on a call that both players simply can't agree on. Also, if anybody else has any other suggestions, ideas, or just think something needs to be changed, feel free to chime in!

[AURON]

I'd say the point pool should be maxed out at 210 since that's where you're at. I know there are some BAMFs out there who probably could have all upper teens, close to twenties...but for stats sake, it would even think out a bit better.

[Oneironaut Zero]

I'd say the point pool should be maxed out at 210 since that's where you're at. I know there are some BAMFs out there who probably could have all upper teens, close to twenties...but for stats sake, it would even think out a bit better. Yeah, they will stay just that even distribution, between 1-20 (if you are meaning the ability stats), but what can change is just the order in which you have them listed. So, essentially, you can't go above the number that's already set, but you can find some skills to be stronger than others, over time.

[dakotahnok]

I like this idea, it looks like you put a lot of thought into it.

[Ezpata]

Consider me signed up. With enough thought, interest, and maybe a little pixie dust, we can make this happen.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Nice! Thanks, guys! Also, for anyone who may be new to turn-based text battles, here's a link to the main thread for the Matrix Spars a few of us were doing, awhile ago. It should help you get a flavor for how the fights play out, though some rules and elements will be changed, to suit the format we're going for, here: Matrix RP - "This Is A Sparring Program..." *INTRODUCTION AND DISCUSSION* OP is more RP specific. Battle list starts on post #2.

[Ezpata]

Hard to believe something so cool died. Talking of the Matrix RP. Now I want to get this started even more! And I know I want to fight Hukif.

[Oneironaut Zero]

I believe the basics are pretty much covered. Might have to get a practice fight going on, just to work out the kinks and see if there is anything else that definitely needs to be thought of. Anybody want to go a practice round? Maybe first to 3 points? This won't count for anything, of course. Just a way to flesh out the way the fighting style will flow, and how efficient the points/stats/powers system will go. Who wants to be my guinea pig??

[Zephyrus]

Ill be a guinea pig! Flight - 20 Telekinesis - 11 Energy Blasts - 10 Fire Manipulation - 18 Earth/Landscape Manipulation - 1 Water Manipulation - 16 Air Manipulation - 2 Electricity Manipulation - 17 Gravity Manipulation (non-flight) - 3 Shape-Shifting - 4 Phasing/Intangibility - 9 Summoning People - 6 Summoning Objects - 8 Super human strength - 12 Invulnerability - 19 Super speed - 7 Hand-to-Hand Combat - 13 Firearms - 14 Miscellaneous Magic - 5 Teleportation – 15 Offensive Control-2 Defensive Control-1 Awareness-4 clarity- 3

[tom32]

I SHALL BE A TESTING PIG OR SOMETHING AS WELL. Flight - 17 Telekinesis - 19 Energy Blasts - 1 Fire Manipulation - 1 Earth/Landscape Manipulation - 1 Water Manipulation - 5 Air Manipulation - 2 Electricity Manipulation - 14 Gravity Manipulation (non-flight) - 2 Shape-Shifting - 5 Phasing/Intangibility - 1 Summoning People - 1 Summoning Objects - 9 Super human strength - 1 Invulnerability - 5 Super speed - 2 Hand-to-Hand Combat - 15 Firearms - 2 Miscellaneous Magic - 1 Teleportation – 1 Offensive Control-4 Defensive Control-3 Awareness-2 clarity- 1

[Oneironaut Zero]

Nice. Test round, coming up shortly...

[Zephyrus]

Test Fight 1. AustralianFire Vs Oneironaut Setting: Gerringong, NSW, Australia Current Condition: ^ Overview of the town Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Google maps view of the town Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Fern Street, Facing South Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Same location as ^, except facing north Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Corner Of bridges Road, South End of Werri Beach, Facing North Gerringong shops - Google Maps - The Palm Street Roundabout, Facing South, Town center up the top of hill Gerringong shops - Google Maps - The Palm Street Roundabout, Facing East, Beach Down The bottom of the hill http://g.co/maps/ku8q9 The Palm Street Roundabout, Facing North, Highway this way Gerringong shops - Google Maps - The Palm Tree Roundabout, Facing West, Football Oval this Way. Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Geering Street, Facing East, Beach this Way. Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Boat Harbor, Facing East, Pool located here Gerringong shops - Google Maps - Fern Street, Facing North, Shops In View (It would be a good Idea to keep the overview of Gerringong in a Separate Tab) Weather:Sunny, No Wind Time: 12pm Monday Tempature: 24 degrees Celsius Crowds: Not Crowded, but people Still around Objects Scattered about: A Large Gatling Gun located at the Oval Several Cars Parked Along the Highway ready to be used Two underwater Chests, Hidden at both Boat harbor and Werri beach, contents and Exact location not known Lead Shield Located in the bank I Am Currently Standing on the pedestrian Crossing located at the first two pictures. I am just wearing Casuals, consisting of Long black pants, A Teal colored T-Shirt, No Shoes and some Aviator sunglasses. I look around and observe the area. There is a young couple in their earlier twenties entering the bank. A older 40 year old Man is walking south past the surf shop and bakery. Across the road there is a Mother with her three young children at the park. The kids look to be around the ages of 3,5,7 and totally enjoying themselves. There is currently No cars in the street, except for one Mazada 3 Parked in the car park. I look around, waiting for my Opponent........

[Oneironaut Zero]

Oneironaut takes a good, long look around him. He was in unfamiliar territory. Still unused to this whole 'Shared Dreaming' thing, he brings his fingers up to the side of him, brushing them along the wall and taking in the texture. it felt real. Even for a shared dream with his opponent, the environment is extremely convincing. He isn't quite accustomed to - or comfortable with - the idea of being drawn into someone else's dreamworld, but he knows that this is what he was going to have to do, to survive this battles, ahead. Eyeballing AustralianFire, he steps forward, away from the stone wall, and a little bit closer to the crosswalk, his eyes giving a shift about the vicinity, trying to get a handle on where all of the bystanding dream characters where. It doesn't matter too much though, he knows, for this is a dream, and the characters around the fighters could be here the one moment, and gone the next. He wears a pair of baggy blue jeans, a black, collared Polo shirt, and a white Atlanta Braves hat, turned to 5 o'clock. Grinning, he gives a slight nod of his head in approval to AustralianFire, taking in the vivid imagery around him. "Nice place you got here," he laughs, actually a bit impressed at how clear the environment was to him. "So I know there was another one of us...?" He looks around for Tom, discretely scoping the area for any loose weapons, as well.

[tom32]

Walking from behind a car of some sort, Aaron Scopes the area for any possible threats (And yes, My IRL name is Aaron.) Seeing a quite tall man, He wears a pair of jeans, a shirt, And a Hat. "Hey you, Where the bloody hell Am I? And I want answers, Right now." Giving a glare at This unknown man. Running his hands across this man's neck, He finds that it feels quite stable. This place felt new, He had never been here before. He sits on the ground, gesturing for Oneironaut to sit down, too. He has a Suit on. (http://www.ralphlauren.com/graphics/...d_v360x480.jpg) A pair of sneakers, And a small watch on his right arm, He does not bother to check it.

[Zephyrus]

I clasp my hands together and crack my knuckles, followed by cracking my neck. I look around and observe that I am right in between One and Aaron. I need to relocate. I observe the top of the town hall as a good place to be, and could gain a height advantage. I Crouch down and Leap on top of the town hall. I spin around quickly and quickly launch two Fire balls at One and Aaron, however I wasn't paying too much attention to Aim. Rather just trying to startle the two. I Don't wait to see the results as I just crouch down on the roof out of immediate sight.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Oneironaut smiles, watching Aaron sit down upon the concrete. His head then shakes from left to right, and back, silently declining the invitation for him to do the same. "I believe this is..." He raises a hand, pointing over toward Afire with his index finger. "...his dream." His eyes wander around him, then, taking in the environment, wondering just what the significance of this town was, and why AustralianFire might have dreamed about it. He's apparently ready to get this parted started, though, flexing his fingers in and out of fists while scanning about the area, before turning back to glance toward AFire. Oneironaut watches the other dreamer rise quickly into the air and make his way to the top of the town hall building, in front of which Aaron was seated, rather nonchalantly. Not quite sure of which one of them is going to attack first, Oneironaut rearranges his stance so that his left side faces the town hall. Far from one to underestimate anyone, his eyes shift from person to person, looking for any sort of telegraphed movements. Even as AFire lands on the roof of the building, the tension doesn't necessarily seem all that thick, however...that is, until AFire quickly spins around, two fireballs screaming out from his position. For just one moment, Oneironaut gets the chance to see that not both of the fireballs are headed toward him. One is angled almost straight down, toward the place where Aaron had just planted himself. It is now the other fireball, that calls for his attention. It isn't too big to dodge, though. Oneironaut spins clockwise, his lead, left foot anchored to the stone sidewalk beneath him, rotating his body on an axis and out of the direct line of the fireball's fire. The incendiary projectile slams to the ground, behind him, splattering like napalm up the side of the wall where he had just been standing, moments ago. Like neon paint against a hard, white canvas, some of the fire splashes back outward in a wave, droplets of red-hot light falling upon the tree next to him, gradually setting it ablaze. With the rotation of his spin, wasting no time at all, Oneironaut plants both feet now, holding out his palms in front of him and taking visual aim upon a 4-Door sedan parked on the street, in front of him. He imagines himself being connected, mentally, with the vehicle, his hands guiding him at a distance, as if he's actually grabbing onto the vehicle with his fingers. In his mind's eye, he begins to lift the car from the ground with his invisible hands. With some small, but quite apparent, degree of concentration, he takes a telekinetic hold upon the car, and it begins to gently ascend from its parking spot, to about three feet in the air.. His eyes sweep from the car, to Aaron, checking his position for the moment, to see how he reacted to the fireball, but then they slide directly back up toward AustralianFire, still perched on the roof. Holding the vehicle in midair, with his mind, ready to use it as a weapon, at a moment's notice, he fixes his gaze to AFire's movements, watching for any signs of an oncoming follow-up attack. [Aside: So, since the telekinetic attack has been prepped in this post - and I wasn't able to just defend/counter attack - this car will hit for 2 points, if I'm able to actually hit someone with it. Lol. That's much easier said than done, though. ]

[tom32]

Noticing the incoming fireball, Aaron tracks it with his eyes, starting to dive left of it, left hand being thrust down, right hand out towards the ground, incase he hits the ground. He lands, but falls over in the process. "Hey you, Watch your fucking aim!" Getting up, he sticks his hands out towards the car he was hiding behind just minutes ago, starting to get a mental grip on it, his heart beating ever faster. "Lets pound this dickhead." (Also, if it hits anybody, *ONE* damage.)

[Oneironaut Zero]

[Aside: Ok, one of the things we will have to establish is a limited amount of text for prepping magic, which I hinted at, in the opening posts, but we didn't really set the limit for. These fights are going to encourage detail, so we are going to at least have a minimum line count for prepping magic (so that someone who writes out a very detailed attack is not going to be trumped by someone writing an attack with just a couple of lines. So, we have to set a base). I would think that prepping something that's going to take two hits should take at least, like, what, 15 lines? (Breaks down into like 3 paragraphs of 5 lines or more, which isn't too bad.) That way, if someone is going to defend against it, their post has to be just as detailed (15 lines or more). Then, when it comes to attacking and defending, a detailed attack must be met with an equally detailed defense, in order to withstand it. So, Tom, I would say ad a bit more detail to that prep, if you want it to take 2 points. (If you can't edit it, now that I've posted something, let me know, and I'll help you edit it.)]

[tom32]

Fine, It shall be 1 point.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Well, you erased your attack, so if you still want to write some extra paragraphs on your next post, I guess that will work. Remember: a weak attack can be prepped and launched (attacked) in the same post. A strong attack has to use a post to prep it, without actually attacking with it. Back to Aus's turn.