Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Guy1]

LOL he literally sends out the other sixth Rangers out!

[Sharkerbob]

Thought up some other things. Babies and kids are no zombies too, forever stunted in growth. New parents are left to take care of a baby who will never grow up and be dependent on them forever.

I guess I left it out on the initial descriptor, but you could still kill a zombie through brain destruction. The viral neurology still needs a mostly intact brain to have enough organic mass to operate off of. Best if you burn it to ash, but smashing it to pieces will work, too. Theoretically a brain left intact in a vacuum jar could last indefinitely, but I imagine some inevitable amount of decay may set in. Could take decades or centuries just for the sake of narrative conceit, though.

I don't know how many would actually go for it, but I kind of think mercy killings are going to be the inevitable fate of a brain that hasn't even developed sufficient memory to understand anything beyond basic instincts. Babies are pretty much going to be brains-in-a-jar that can't even develop enough to fully understand basic concepts of self-awareness. Or, they may get locked away until some possible future where growable bodies appear or ways to stimulate the brain to develop in a machine body. Best case scenario, they get put on "pause" for a long while.

Which could be all the reason some sickos need to use them as test subjects.

Kids are stuck in perpetual childhoods.

Not the worst fate, considering.

And don't forget the elderly, people in their twilight years who even with the aches and pains of old age gone as zombies aren't in the best of health still. They'll need to be taken care of, although an aged population that never dies and is never replaced by the newer old generation and is reliant on welfare may spark up some ageism protests from the young worked class. Though like you mentioned that's well after the first several years or decades later.

People with bodies already too wrecked to be of any use, but who aren't willing to get their brains smashed in could opt to wait in jars until the cyborg tech potentially comes. Of course, having developed minds, maybe that would drive them insane. Does make me wonder if maybe there rises some "donor" bodies, people who agree to carry heads in jars that are still able to talk somehow, for those elderly who still have sharp enough minds to be of use to society.

And there's people on death's bed who now can't die but being zombified doesn't make them better.

See above.

Plus people still get injured, but medical care becomes more complicated when flesh can't heal. Sure with dead bodies many reasons to get surfers no longer apply, but some still do - like putting in screws and plates for badly broken bones.

Well, this is the whole big crisis that the story was revolving around. People's bodies overtime become riddled with internal reinforcements and maybe some prosthetics.

Honestly the best setting for the first year or two of that disaster might be a hospital.

I can imagine whole cities becoming enormous hospital settlements, yeah.

How'd you get past them? You don't have to share if it's uncomfortable though.

I wish I had some great self-help advice to give, but it mostly has come down to time, age, perspective, information, and attrition. Some things in life you can change. Other things you have to work around. Some of it just comes down to acceptance of your flaws, and the realization that just because you aren't the person you wish you were, doesn't mean you are a fundamentally bad person. It also means realizing that there is a complicated network of cause and effect to everything, and recognizing patterns to your thought processes and putting that into a wider perspective. Go through something enough times, even bouts of crushing depression, and you can start learning to ride the waves and course correct in the midst of the situation.

Sorry, I don't have the professional vernacular to really lay this out, and I hope I haven't misconstrued what you meant earlier, but as an anecdote: occasionally I find myself having what you might call an "emotional episode". During one of these, it's easy to get caught up in spiraling cycles of regret and resentment of past mistakes, some of it is overwhelming anxiety over future risks. Some of this came on as a result of realizing flaws about myself, not all of which can be fixed very much if at all. But also, figuring out more about why those flaws exist and extrapolating the dominos of how things go, it helps kind of take me out of my own doom spiral, and realize the "episode" I'm having is a temporary thing that will pass.

I hate myself for quitting drawing fifteen years ago. Okay, well, I had my reasons back then, and I'm back in it now, and I can't do anything about the past. I can sit here and sulk about it for a while, or go draw something, or play a video game, regardless, the episode will pass.

Or maybe I just feel really shitty because I'm having some bad reaction to something I ate and it's fucked with my blood sugar. Or maybe I just got up from one of those awful mid-day naps that ends up discombobulating your brain chemistry moreso than actually refreshing you, and my anxieties are just latching onto the emotional state, and I just need to chill the **** out until it passes. Or maybe I'm mad because I had a shitty day at work, and I need to not take that negativity out on myself.

Granted, none of this stops me from feeling bad in the moment, but some of it just comes down to accepting that, "Yeah, that's called being alive, you're going to have bad days", and just eventually letting the **** process through you and burn out of your system.

If I may get morbid for a moment, it helps that no matter how depressed I get, I've never been able to get over my self-preservation instinct enough to commit suicide. So I don't get to take the easy way out of dealing with my problems. I'm not going to do it, which means I still have to keep living, and am I going to spend the rest of my life hating myself because I didn't write that book? Whether I write the book or not, I'm still here. So what am I going to do to make use of my time? Doesn't have to be write the book, but I gotta do something, because if I just lay in bed all day, I'm going to get terrible back pain, and the boredom will eventually get me moving.

I'm sorry, I feel like that didn't help at all, and may not even address your specific issue. Basically, it comes down to just learning to let the negativity flow out of you. Partly stoicism, partly meditation, partly examining and analyzing, partly just feeling it through. You may never cure yourself entirely of the internal filth. But you can learn to brush it off more effectively, or tidy things up more efficiently, until eventually the tide stems.

Of course, I have also come to realize that self-loathing and internal spite have become, or maybe have long been, thematic drivers of a lot of my creativity as well, so, failing all of the, you can try to channel that power into an outlet that lets you vent it. Part of why I'm working to re-learn art again is precisely because I am furious at myself for letting that skill go to waste all these years. My best and most impactful stories I've written, I've realized, have common themes of main characters with deep, festering regrets doing what they can to make things right again. So that's something else that may help.

Yeah, shame I'm not really into TTRPG books or I might have something - I honestly have a stupid amount of setting and scenario ideas to fill up a library of such books. But I don't really have the passion for that kind of material to make something like that. Also they all require technical rules and things for how the gameplay works and that's really not my wheelhouse.

Yeah. I mean, I've seen some "systemless setting books", but I don't think most people get into them outside of general worldbuilding enthusiasts. I have made the occasional attempt at making TTRPGs, despite barely playing them, and I could probably do more if I really wanted to. Even just using a basic system can sometimes lead to interesting considerations for magic systems or even social systems or cultural considerations I might not have paid much attention to before.

On my main story blog, I've even posted several setting articles for the hell of it. Any one of those I could probably expand into a full RPG book if I had any inkling people would actually give a read. But they would probably just gain more traction on a wordlbuilder forum.

I do feel like my worldbuilding is kind of shallow at times. I tend to be much more interested in the physicality of the world, the spectacle of the fantastical elements, and I don't do enough exploring of the cultures in those worlds beyond some surface level stuff. But then, I might dig into them more if I actually had narratives for said worlds, but that's always been a big weak point in my creative thinking.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Nik Hasta]

Yeah, shame I'm not really into TTRPG books or I might have something - I honestly have a stupid amount of setting and scenario ideas to fill up a library of such books. But I don't really have the passion for that kind of material to make something like that. Also they all require technical rules and things for how the gameplay works and that's really not my wheelhouse.

To be opportunistic for a hot second, as you may be aware I am in the process of engineering an RPG system for a game and would be only too grateful to receive any ideas for additional questlines or setting concepts.

My PMs are open if you want to throw some stuff into the mix.

Sharker, that obviously goes for you as well or anyone else who fancies contributing. I have an infinite city to fill with history, lost secrets and danger and most of my energy is spent on refining the mechanics of the game, assisting the PCs with getting to grips with the new system and building NPCs.

This an open call, if you want to be involved, do let me know.

[Vakanai]

To be opportunistic for a hot second, as you may be aware I am in the process of engineering an RPG system for a game and would be only too grateful to receive any ideas for additional questlines or setting concepts.

My PMs are open if you want to throw some stuff into the mix.

Sharker, that obviously goes for you as well or anyone else who fancies contributing. I have an infinite city to fill with history, lost secrets and danger and most of my energy is spent on refining the mechanics of the game, assisting the PCs with getting to grips with the new system and building NPCs.

This an open call, if you want to be involved, do let me know.

Depends, are you looking for more fantasy or sci-fi, historic modern or futuristic?

[Vakanai]

I wish I had some great self-help advice to give, but it mostly has come down to time, age, perspective, information, and attrition. Some things in life you can change. Other things you have to work around. Some of it just comes down to acceptance of your flaws, and the realization that just because you aren't the person you wish you were, doesn't mean you are a fundamentally bad person. It also means realizing that there is a complicated network of cause and effect to everything, and recognizing patterns to your thought processes and putting that into a wider perspective. Go through something enough times, even bouts of crushing depression, and you can start learning to ride the waves and course correct in the midst of the situation.

Kind of what I'm already doing actually, although maybe not in the most healthy way. I've been through bouts of depression most my life, some more severe than others, and I've learned how to wait it out. Literally, I wait. Nothing gets resolved, I don't grow or change, I don't get better, I just wait and eventually I just grow numb or get used to the thing that was bothering me and I move on. I know that it sounds bad, but honestly it's become somewhat routine enough over my life that it's become somewhat automatic in a way. Like instinctive to the point where I can sort of disattach or disassociate from my life a little bit and go into holding pattern.

Reason why this has been as bad as it has been is because it's somewhat gone and struck against that mechanism. I can't shift into autopilot and disembody when I'm this painfully aware of my body. So it's tripped me up to where my past experience and techniques no longer help. It's weird to find that the tools you've relied on can't be used for this problem.

Well, except for the tool of time. It's not going away, it probably never will go away, but the more time passes the more it just becomes normal.

I do feel like my worldbuilding is kind of shallow at times. I tend to be much more interested in the physicality of the world, the spectacle of the fantastical elements, and I don't do enough exploring of the cultures in those worlds beyond some surface level stuff. But then, I might dig into them more if I actually had narratives for said worlds, but that's always been a big weak point in my creative thinking.

I have trouble with the narrative stuff, but I can really get into the history and culture of my settings. It's easy for me because I can tie it into characters and characters are what I get best. Like in my oldest setting that I've been daydreaming about since elementary school (or was it middle school? Anyways since I was a child), I started with a character I liked, and I just had to create a history and culture that could produce that character. The Dragonknight, a being so old that most have long since forgotten there was once a whole knighthood like him. Knights who were infused with the power of dragonflame until they bled fire when wounded in combat. But the dragons lost hope in men and retired to slumber in the earth, creating no more Dragonknights. The Dragonknights though continued their charge of protecting the Great Forest, a task which often times put them at odds with the various petty lords and rulers of the kingdoms surrounding the forest over the centuries. Over the course of a millennium the Dragonknights, unaging, fell. For there's only two ways to kill a Dragonknight - they must fall in battle, or they must fall in love. For if they fall in love they lose their dragonflame and become normal humans again. This was meant as a gift from the dragons, so that those who fell in love could retire age and die with their true loves. But this was when dragons still took interest in the world and could replenish the ranks of the Dragonknights. But for the last Dragonknight it is a curse, because he can never allow himself to fall in love or the knighthood would finally fall and with him powerless the forest would be razed to the ground for its riches and secrets.

Of course with that I also created his love interest and then had to create the culture that could produce her. Among the kingdoms that flourish around the magical forest only one has been allied with the Dragonknights, a kingdom so old that it's name is Kingdom and gave rise to the word. Kingdom had long prospered, becoming the strongest nation in the known world, until an incident three centuries prior. The young Queen recently crowned after her grandfather's death was courting the young prince of one of the Lands Beyond the Sea, for this was still the Golden Age of Sailing before the Leviathan. The Prince of that land was known to love animals and kept a menagerie of the most fantastical beasts. But one animal he had not and most longed for was a unicorn. To win his pledge of marriage she ordered the capture of a unicorn, a most dangerous proposition. The unicorn is perhaps the most deadly of all creatures, for the alicorn (unicorn horn) is sharp and strong enough to pierce the scales of dragons, and the size and strength of the animals is no small matter (in the setting unicorns are massive - think of the extinct Irish Elk from the Ice Age).

Of course the capture of such a monster had the predictable result - the unicorn, strong as a dragon and enraged like nothing else, broke free, tore through the Kingdom like a storm, and was so forceful in its rampage the alicorn broke off it's head. The Kingdom was so damaged by this event it went from the most powerful among nations to one of the weaker. Three centuries later and it's recovered enough to be just one of three undisputed superpowers. To help the Kingdom shore up it's standing and strength it sought to reestablish the ages old alliance with the Dragonknights, even if only one still stands (Dragonknights are second mostly to just dragons and unicorns, so one is still very powerful an ally when talking about early Medieval style kingdoms). As a sign of goodwill the last Dragonknight agrees to restart the old tradition of having a Dragonknight train the Kingdom's heir in combat. The Kingdom is unique in that the heir is always the firstborn whether son or daughter, hence it may be ruled by a King or a Queen depending on whoever the eldest is. This time the heir is an only child, the Princess (like the Dragonknight I never settle on the Princess' name for long). The Princess is the heir to the Kingdom and the inheritor of the Alicorn Spear, made with the very same broken horn that wrecked the Kingdom centuries ago.

And that's how I made most of the world for the setting. Just coming up with a story to justify having a character called the Dragonknight, and then another story to justify having a Unicorn Princess. And I made the Dragonknight just because I saw an anime character once who was a knight with a dragon head shaped helm and liked the image, and I made a Unicorn Princess just because I read once that unicorns can kill dragons. So I thought making a dragon person and a unicorn person love interests was kind of cute and maybe symbolic - because a unicorn can kill a dragon, and if the Dragonknight falls in love he "dies" in his dangerous profession to settle down marry and start a family as a human being again.

Of course this is all just the history of the setting. The story takes place after these events. The Princess fell in love with the Dragonknight during her years of training, and during her graduation when she finally bests him in combat she confesses her love. Fearing that he may fall in love and become powerless he flees back into the Forest. Shortly after this the unicorn from centuries back returns and begins spreading woe onto the lands. The Great Continent itself is in danger, so knight and princess must team up for an epic quest to magically return the alicorn to the unicorn's head to calm the beast.

The epic quest to do that sadly is where I've been stuck at for over twenty years.

[Nik Hasta]

Depends, are you looking for more fantasy or sci-fi, historic modern or futuristic?

As noted in the opening notes, Khazan the Infinite City at the centre of all of creation and has been ruled by innumerable civilisations, regimes and groups over the lifespan of the omniverse. You can have literally anything in there.

Without spoiling stuff about the upcoming campaign, I have elements in the mix ranging from mythology and high fantasy magic to dystopian futuristic settings. Alternatively, just look at the cast for the diversity of tones - we have fallen angel kung fu masters, wrestlers, killer robots, sentient multi-dimensional gemstones, reincarnated Aztec gods and a really big strong frog guy from space.

It's a very open creative space. If you want to contribute, hit me up.

[Sharpandpointies]

This is still partly the case, but (at least on the Anima Discord) some of the lore topics and rules questions are now broken out as individual separate threads, so the conversation doesn’t get lost, doesn’t move fast and is all focused on the topic in question. So that helps.

That does help, and when I work up the energy to go back, I'll probably be a lot happier with that. ^_^ Thanks for letting me know.

Actually, Discord RP can be exactly like the long-form RP stuff you’re used to. In fact, in the Anima game I’m in (Mob’s game), it’s exactly that.

Built-in dice roller, uploading character sheets, private threads for solo personal side-quests or when the party splits etc.

Ironically, the extreme pace is one of the main reasons I’ve dropped out of an RPG here and avoided them here since (I’d have loved to have continued playing my megalomaniac psychic armadillo in Cleric’s game, but I knew I was never going to keep up).

I don’t have that problem at all in Discord.

I guess it depends on the group in which you’re playing or the way that GM runs it. *shrugs*

That's interesting. There isn't a set time for everyone to get together and play in real-time? It's actually done PbP style? Good stuff.

My experience with Discord RPGing died very quickly when every game I joined was basically 'we get together at this time, and just play as if we're sitting around a table'.

As for the posting rate here, this place can be an anomaly when it comes to PbP. I completely agree about the posting rates, which is one of the reasons why my attempts at doing RP here have been few and far between (and in those few, occasionally being a pseudo-NPC).

Alas poor Preston. Gone too soon.

Still remember him fumbling his first Stealth check, and stepping on every twig while creeping towards a town wall (I forget the why, but not the what).

Wasn't there also 'completely unable to climb the wall'?

fallen angel

[Krys] *Janet Voice* Not an angel.

kung fu masters

[Krys] *Janet Voice* Not kung fu.

^_^

[Beadle]

So apparently Jason David Frank, aka Green Ranger Tommy Oliver, has died.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

So apparently Jason David Frank, aka Green Ranger Tommy Oliver, has died.

Yeah.

Him and Kevin Conroy in the same month. What a brutal blow to childhood.

[Len Ikari145]

So apparently Jason David Frank, aka Green Ranger Tommy Oliver, has died.

Jesus Christ, who's next? Mark Hamill?

[The Dog]

Jesus Christ, who's next? Mark Hamill?

Dude! don't give Death any ideas!

[Sharkerbob]

Kind of what I'm already doing actually, although maybe not in the most healthy way. I've been through bouts of depression most my life, some more severe than others, and I've learned how to wait it out. Literally, I wait. Nothing gets resolved, I don't grow or change, I don't get better, I just wait and eventually I just grow numb or get used to the thing that was bothering me and I move on. I know that it sounds bad, but honestly it's become somewhat routine enough over my life that it's become somewhat automatic in a way. Like instinctive to the point where I can sort of disattach or disassociate from my life a little bit and go into holding pattern.

I mean, sometimes it does just come down to this, too, so I feel ya.

Reason why this has been as bad as it has been is because it's somewhat gone and struck against that mechanism. I can't shift into autopilot and disembody when I'm this painfully aware of my body. So it's tripped me up to where my past experience and techniques no longer help. It's weird to find that the tools you've relied on can't be used for this problem.

Well, except for the tool of time. It's not going away, it probably never will go away, but the more time passes the more it just becomes normal.

Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. I hope something is able to give for you, and you can move past this. Wish I had more helpful advice beyond just "hang in there."

Dragonknight stuff.

Sounds like a cool set up!

So apparently Jason David Frank, aka Green Ranger Tommy Oliver, has died.

Damn. Only 49. Too young to go.

[Len Ikari145]

Undead Unluck: That is a clever application of Fuuko's Unluck and I cannot wait to see what the other phenomena the higher-ranked bullets are capable of. Also, Feng is a lot more powerful than I thought if he was able cause that degree of collateral damage with what is essentially a "Dynamic Entry".

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Rest in Peace Jason David Frank.