Rapture!

[Dasquian Belargic]

BioShock RP.

You knew it was coming.

So let's discuss how we could make this work :ohno

[Droo]

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately, and discussing it with Peter, too. My first thoughts were how awesome it would be to have the roleplay set in Rapture before the fall, as it were. Like Caprica, getting the pieces into place for the inevitable downfall amongst all the decadance, crime, and debauchery of the city in its prime.

My second thought was a "What if", and what if there was a second city, a sister city to Rapture. Neither Rapture or its sister, I was toying with the name Elysium, have any knowledge of each other outside of its creator(s). And the people of Elysium would therefore have no knowledge of Rapture's demise. This would be really cool for roleplaying because we would have the choice of environments, one like Rapture before and Rapture as we see it in the games.

One last thing, I had an idea for a character. A detective whose wife left him for another man, a man involved in the mafia, and they disappeared without trace taking his son and daughter with them. He is appointed the task of hunting down this criminal, with the alterior motive of retrieving his children and taking revenge on his wife for her infidelity. Naturally, the trail would lead him to Rapture, where he assumes an alias and goes undercover. After that, basically think the Wickerman(the good one) but set in Rapture and involving spliced up cultists instead of singing ones. Such a story would be pretty cool for an introduction to the world and the characters who inhabit it.

Oh, very last thought, how cool would it be to have links in our posts to our very own audio tapes?

[Dasquian Belargic]

When Emelie and I discussed this briefly, a prequel setting was also what I suggested as a possibility. Rapture before the Fall, essentially - or mid-Fall, so that we already have the beginning of some Splicers.

Having a sister city would also be an interesting angle. Would it have also been built by Andrew Ryan, and if so why? How would it differ from Rapture?

Audio tapes... do you mean record your own?! :o (if so that could be incredibly fun)

[Droo]

Having a sister city would also be an interesting angle. Would it have also been built by Andrew Ryan, and if so why? How would it differ from Rapture?

Audio tapes... do you mean record your own?! :o (if so that could be incredibly fun)

I'm not sure about who would be behind a sister city, taking into account Ryan's actions towards the end of the game, it doesn't suggest he has another city up his sleeve but then again, we don't neccessarily have to abide by the game to the letter in that regard. As for why and how different, I'm not entirely sure yet, I figured it could be something we could all cher over together.

And as for the audio tapes, absolutely yes, record your own! So get to work on your accents! :)

[Peter McCoy]

I'm most definitely participating in this exciting venture. I already have a character planned.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Interesting. Don't know that much about RP viability (though the audio log idea was brilliance defined!), but it is such a lovely playground for stories. I'll give it a thought or two, but I don't know if I'll have the time or inclination.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Despite my obscene love of BioShock and its lore... I have to admit I'm hesitant.

I think the audio log idea is brilliance... but I'm really odd about recording my voice (despite having hung out with so many of you!) so I already know I'll be hesitant there.

I think my main problem is that I think I want to see what the mutliplayer unearths in terms of pre-Bioshock 1 lore before I jump in. While I know that we could pretty much do what we want and say to tell with what is determined "canon" ...I'd just hate to get over excited about something and have it die out quickly (like the post-Apoc RP) or before it even found its legs (like the Fallout one). I think the reason the SW one is so successful is it has a giant realm to play in. Same with X-Men, a bit. And while I've come to realize just how GIANT Rapture is... I'm almost wondering if it's also limiting in a way. ...Like I said, I just want to see what there is to work with before I jump in trying to write in someone's semi-established playground.

:) I am interested in a character though... I have some Sander Cohen obsessive starlet failure lurking about in the corners of my mind that I may have to develop more and give life to in written (and apparently vocal!) form.

[Droo]

Star Wars is the only truly massive roleplaying environment we have and is sustained as such because it is the one in which we collectively have the most invested interest. Call the others big if you will but in my experience, they only work well in contained scenarios and character locales. Yes, epic stories are great but their success rate is dubious at best, whether or not the roleplayers are left dissatisfied or whether or not the bloody things get finished at all. In any case, whatever waters into which we dip our creative toes, the truth remains that character and atmosphere are paramount; without either of these who could care for the plot?

Personally, I don't think we need to worry about the size of Rapture. Post-Apoc interested me (and also wasn't that supposed to be our take on a Fallout universe, anyway?) but I ultimately felt overwhelmed by the scope we were aiming for and didn't like the idea that characters were all over the place, considering the numbers involved. Whereas in a place like Rapture, surely it would be easier to bring characters together and have their stories intertwine?

Regardless, I don't want to miss out on an opportunity to at least try with this one. Even if it's a single roleplay; something to whet the appetite, and give others a sense of what could be in store for them if they were to join in. The question is how exactly to approach it: pre-Bioshock Rapture or not? If you do have a suggestion, please let us know.

[Crusader]

BTW what happened to the Fallout idea?

[Dasquian Belargic]

There's certainly nothing to stop anyone creating a Fallout-based RP thread - the Gen RPing forum is open to anyone for anything, regardless of whether we have discussed the setting here in the discussion forum.

One of the reoccuring failures of the Gen RPing setting is simply that we tried to plan too much, I think. With a compelling setting like Rapture, or the Fallout wasteland, all we should really need is an initial event to kick off play and some characters to throw into it.

What that initial event is, and where it fits into the timeline of Rapture, I'm not sure.

[Crusader]

^^a bombing is normaly a good way to start...

[Travis North]

You've got that alt ending from BioShock 1 with the Nuclear submarine being boarded by Splicers. Say the crew repels the boarders but the vessel is damaged and taking on water from the assault. The crew has no recourse but to abandon ship, head down to Rapture, and hope to secure some type of communications equipment. This is plausible as Fontaine/Atlas had connections to the surface with his smuggling network.

The setting would be between the events of BioShock 1 and 2, a nice 10 year gap. As well to keep the roleplay in perspective everyone will eventually bite it, wind up lost in the city, or become a victem of splicing. This allows players of the roleplay to drop out whenever with minimal impact on other players. It also has minimal impact on altering the BioShock timeline leaving it open for future roleplays and the continued story portrayed in the video games. That is if everyone here agrees that said survivors never make contact with the surface and that search and rescue turns up nothing.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I think that's a fantastic idea, Travis :ohno