Spring Showers- A couple ideas from Overcast

[Overcast]

Alrighty, so for a long while I have been attempting to build the self confidence and spare time to actually try out my own RP. As of now I've got enough of both to toss out a couple ideas and see if there are any biters. Hopefully this will be a happy first time.

Idea One: Don't Rest Your Head
So this is a game I had been waiting a long time to try to get the gamebook for, and now that I finally got it I am incredibly excited in trying to run something with it.

You are one of the Awake, an insomniac who has developed strange abilities from his lack of sleep, dangerous abilities that drain your strength and threaten your sanity every time you push them. You also gain an awareness of a whole other facet of reality known as the Mad City, a land inhabited by those who got lost and stuck in their old habits and nightmares who would be more than willing to liberate you of your life, but in this place could be the answer to all your problems. After all something had to have kept you awake so long. In the end you are now in terrible danger, so don't lose your mind, don't lose your life.

Don't rest your head.

I will be using the dice system in the game since it isn't going to interfere too deeply with role playing(it was set up that way) and the storyline will be built quite a bit around the characters involved so I'd need to see interest before the plot takes form.

Idea Two: BLANK IT!
Idea based off of a comic (http://blankitcomics.com/)this is another idea that will get a lot of its power from the players that join. In it your character will wake up in a blank white space with no real memories, no real name, nothing but the clothes on your back and whatever personality is there driving you. Or not driving you, could be lazy. In the end who knows what is waiting in the blankness, but hell you got nothing else to do. Might as well start walking.

We'll see how the response is and with enough interest we can get this party started.

[Geminex]

Both seem quite interesting, though I'm leaning towards the latter. It seems... nicely psychological. And I'm guessing you have much planned in terms of twists and suchlike.

[phil_]

I like the former, because I get to play a crazy person with powers fueled by crazy and not be a liability because everyone else is a crazy running on crazy-juice, too.

[Premmy]

Second vote for crazy-town

[Geminex]

I'd join either, but if we Don't Rest Our Heads, dibs on the utterly psychotic, manipulative character.

[rapter200]

Vote for Crazy here as well.

[Overcast]

From the looks of things madness and insomnia is leading the way.

As for Blank It, I have relative ideas of where it is going. The thing is the world will more often react to you than you reacting to it. Read the comic to get a better idea of what I am talking about. There are plans, but if I do it right it will be like living the mindset of the play, "Waiting for Godot."

On utterly psychotic, it is necessary that I say no one is going to start completely mad. Just relatively mad. Your madness is something you tap into, but it doesn't control you. Not yet anyway. In order to be a real psycho you have to test your luck a bit by tapping into that madness often. And after you snap a little you put yourself at risk of losing your mind much easier. Completely lose it and you lose yourself, your character goes NPC on your ass.

Course it might be worth the risk to summon an army of mook ninja, or one super ninja. Whichever works.

[phil_]

So, concerning Don't Rest Your Head, what system would you be using, exactly? Is it a system called "dice?" See, I wanna know what kind of sanity-breaking, strength-sapping abilities these Awake people have so I can think of a neat one, but I have no idea what parameters I'm working within. So, what can an Awake do and how are we rolling dice?

[Overcast]

Sounds good to me. Essentially the dice system used in DRYH is one that allows the game to be primarily centered on the role playing and making the dice rolls come at those stressful moments when a conflict arises.

Characters receive three kinds of dice, I get one, all are six sided. The three character types are Discipline(three of them), Exhaustion(up to six), and Madness(up to six). My kind is simply called Pain(up to 15). Every dice roll will represent the degree of success the roll achieved and what dice type has dominated the scene. A success comes when the dice shows a 1, 2, or 3. If the player gets more successes they will succeed at what they are trying to do, if not they fail. Domination is decided by which die type had the highest number, if they tie they go to the next highest number, if by some miracle they all roll the same number then Discipline beats Madness; Madness beats Exhaustion; Exhaustion beats Pain. Dominating a scene means that regardless of who wins it is tainted by that result. If Discipline wins the situation stays under control and doesn't get any worse. If Exhaustion wins then your character is particularly drained by the experience. If Madness wins then the scene is flung into chaos as your character loses control for a bit. If Pain dominates, even if you won you must pay a price of some sort.

Discipline dice are your safe dice, they give no major risks for using them and if it dominates you can try to mend your psyche or get your energy back. Exhaustion dice allow you to use your Exhaustion Talent in a major or minor fashion and can only be added one at a time up to six manually, but another will be added when Exhaustion dominates a scene. They hang on until Discipline dominates enough or a break arises to help you get your bearing. Madness can be applied all six at once, a few at a time, one at a time, or none at all without problem, they allow you to use your Madness Talent.

There are still quite a few holes in there, but that is the jist of it. Soon enough I'll get the skeleton together and explain it in full, but if you want you can try to get (http://www.evilhat.com/home/dryh/#dryh_buyit)the game book for yourself.

[Geminex]

On utterly psychotic, it is necessary that I say no one is going to start completely mad. Just relatively mad. Your madness is something you tap into, but it doesn't control you. Not yet anyway. In order to be a real psycho you have to test your luck a bit by tapping into that madness often. And after you snap a little you put yourself at risk of losing your mind much easier. Completely lose it and you lose yourself, your character goes NPC on your ass.

Not to worry... He'll have himself under somewhat tenuous control. Unless he doesn't. ^^

The system seems... interesting. Are the "conflicts" you mentioned only going to take place between PCs? Or NPCs as well?

[Dauntasa]

Not to worry... He'll have himself under somewhat tenuous control. Unless he doesn't. ^^

The system seems... interesting. Are the "conflicts" you mentioned only going to take place between PCs? Or NPCs as well?

Actually, I believe conflicts in DRYH are mainly between PCs and NPCs. I have it and it's expansion saved on my computer somewhere.

[Overcast]

As far as I can tell it is all about who is the protagonist at the time that decides conflict. The player who has the spotlight will always play with their dice, and I get to represent the opposing conflict which can be the environment or another character, even if it were to involve one of you.

So if you ever decide to squabble among each other realize that I get to decide who is more important. Whoever gets less gets to run on my dice, and believe me when I say I am not always going to give you a fair amount of pain levels.

Just because dealing with that sounds annoying as hell.