(edited title to be as dissonant and stupid as humanly possible)

Inspirations to give people some idea on how this RP will play out: SCP Foundation, Some Creepypastas, Eraserhead, Spooky's House of Jumpscares, Aperture Science, Undertale, Pokemon, Gravity's Rainbow (AKA, "how do you read this book?"), pineapple

So, I thought I should really put more effort into opening up a RP of my own, regardless if people don't care for it or not. I can't let my insecurity prevent me from trying. Here's a crude layout for a weird Horror RP. I want to see if people are up for the idea.

Mind the CSS



Excuse the crudity; this is just a rough outline of my RP that I hope to polish up in the future, though I'm not sure what else to add. Some info may seem a little disorganized; if anything feels too incoherent, I would like to know so I can fix it (I'm hoping everyone gets the general idea here). Also, this is a great opportunity for people to ask questions about anything regarding the RP, as I can set up some sort of FAQ section up there. However, if there's any questions regarding lore or backstory, I want to clarify this from the start: some things are deliberately left ambiguous.

It may seem a bit evident to some of you, but the idea was heavily inspired by the works deriving from the SCP foundation. Admittedly I'm not an avid fan, but I've always appreciated their outlandish creativity and wanted to utilize that sort of setting somehow. This RP was created from a few unused concepts, particularly from my delayed Pokemon RP -- it borrows the exact same premise, with players taking on the roles of "monsters" and the GM taking on the role of the "human caretaker".

(I thought about posting this in my other thread since it's not "that" old, but I am still holding onto that Pokemon RP, so I wanted to make a separate thread for this different idea. Sorry if I'm cluttering the forum)

Hmm, as a big fan of the SCP Foundation I am very interested in this. Especially from the perspective of a subject and getting to create more outlandish beings and creatures. I do have a few things to worry about, however. I kind of worry about the more direct "Player vs GM"-ness I see in the intro with all the talk of elimination and all that. Not to doubt your ability to GM, it's just something I've run into before with my own ideas and lead to a few scrapped projects of my own. Another worry I have is over the theme of the tests themselves. There really isn't an indication over the themes and subjects the tests may go over, and while I'm okay with a pretty wide variety of themes and situations, I know there are some things I'm not comfortable exploring or Roleplaying. I know there was some concern with Jauntier's With Dignity roleplay idea over the heavy suicide theme, and the inspiration material often has acts preformed that go places way beyond suicide in horrific-ness (Procedure 110-Montauk anyone?). I just worry about the lack of idea of just what we could be exploring here.

PastelPhoenix said:

I kind of worry about the more direct "Player vs GM"-ness I see in the intro with all the talk of elimination and all that. Not to doubt your ability to GM, it's just something I've run into before with my own ideas and lead to a few scrapped projects of my own.


Another worry I have is over the theme of the tests themselves. There really isn't an indication over the themes and subjects the tests may go over, and while I'm okay with a pretty wide variety of themes and situations, I know there are some things I'm not comfortable exploring or Roleplaying. I know there was some concern with Jauntier's With Dignity roleplay idea over the heavy suicide theme, and the inspiration material often has acts preformed that go places way beyond suicide in horrific-ness (Procedure 110-Montauk anyone?). I just worry about the lack of idea of just what we could be exploring here.

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Though the researcher assigned to Sector 13 has the ability to terminate any subjects that present a liability to the experiments, as well as presenting immediate danger to themselves, termination of a subject is treated as a last resort for the staff and is actually discouraged by the Institution, to the point the staff could even be revoked of their position or much worse -- I mean, it really wouldn't be any fun if they just want around killing everyone on a whim because they got spooked. It is a massive fear tactic that tries to get any deviant subjects to cooperate and comply. There is a focus on the relationship between the GM and the player, but it isn't solely based around some kind of competition. Subjects don't actually have to kill the researcher; if anything frequent discussions that touch upon the researcher's morality and convincing them to do certain things through persuasion is a much more optimal solution than trying to harm them.

If your concern is mostly due to me possibly acting egligent as GM, if I ever decide to post this I will dedicate my time to it. Even if I have to be absent for IRL issues, there are contingency plans that allow the story to continue without the GM character in-play. I mean, there will be times where they will be sleeping or even using the bathroom, so it's not like they're always going to be monitoring the subjects 24/7.


As for your second concern, I'm not very sure what themes or scenario you fear out of the social experiments, as many of things I've planned are to endorse communication and test their level of cooperation with each other (there are elements that try to trick them to selfishly compete with each other, however). Though this RP relies on a form of psychological fear and will question the ethics of consequentialism in science, I don't plan on tackling any serious controversial topics for the experiments and even if might, I plan to disclose the scenarios that players act out in beforehand.

Just a side note to affix onto that point, I want to clarify that real-life disorders (including depression) that may be present in the characters are deliberately left ambiguous and will NOT be mentioned in any direct way. The discretion is avoid any unfortunate implications, and it also allows players to make their own speculations and analysis.

If anyone tries to sign up as a character that requires a procedure as [DATA EXPUNGED] SCP-231's, I will absolutely terminate them because they are already violating the "NO INAPPROPRIATE COPULATION" regulation. I should probably be a little more clear about the rules on what's actually allowed in the RP, though I can't imagine anyone being so depraved that they're willing to delve that far into sheer insanity. I want people to focus on creativity first with their characters; make them fun to think about. I don't want shock value as an edgier substitute for clever writing.

PastelPhoenix said:

"NO INAPPROPRIATE COPULATION"

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Can we appropriately copulate then?

This role-play really piques my interest. You have haven't guessed already, I'm very much into the idea of psychological horror. I'm in a phase right now where I want to try and write more narratives and introspective monologues and bring that into the dysfunctional scene of horror, and this will be perfect for me.

As I read it, the goal is clear, there's a lot of subtleties and nuances in this big mind-game that I already want to exploit for my own personal benefit. I'm excited for this. If this comes out before I more thoroughly correct the functionality of my With Dignity RP among other things, I may reserve my idea for a while to participate and even promote this.

I want to know, are we all in separate cells? Or do we have a roommate or two? Or does it depend on our dossier whether or not we are isolated? Or what? I want to know how we communicate to each other when not doing occasional group experiments, if at all.

I've always been a big fan of the horror and thriller genres and have been wanting to see some RPs of the genre for a while. I'll do a more in-depth look at this later but for now it's suffice to say this looks quite good and I love the concept of it.

Jauntier said:

I want to know, are we all in separate cells? Or do we have a roommate or two? Or does it depend on our dossier whether or not we are isolated? Or what? I want to know how we communicate to each other when not doing occasional group experiments, if at all.

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... i kinda wanted to join your RP, so I'm a little discouraged from posting this.

Anyways, the way I'm envisioning the current layout for the main hub area or basically the place where all players act out in, Sector 13 is structured as a rather large complex segregated into multiple divisions and kind of resembles a medium-sized penitentiary. Each subject will have their own individual holding cell which serves as their bedroom and washroom (provided they need either). Whenever Sector 13 enters lock-down or high-alert, every subject is expected to remain in their given cells by themselves. But for the most part, the majority of the roleplay will take place during the main experiments so subjects won't usually be confined to a limited space and be restricted from interacting with each other.

As for the moments where everyone will be temporally isolated from each other, these will be skipped over through transitions to the next phase. However; there was a possible idea, when subjects "slumber" in their cells, those with minor telepathic could emanate psychic energy or whatever and project themselves inside the minds of other subjects or even the researcher when they are asleep. This would conjoin everyone's consciousness into one surreal dream world, which allowed characters to explore each other's psyche in a very literal way. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this concept, simply because I don't know how to manage it properly and feel it's a little too jarring for the story's given theme and gimmicks. I also feel like this concept would work much better as a stand-alone RP; imagine a roleplay where you explore people's dreams and players can literally shape the world as they see it. Or was this already made?

The roommate thing was something I didn't really though of, to be honest. The holding cells in Sector 13 served as a representation of the slots for the RP. Whenever a subject is terminated or ejected from the experiments (whether they were inactive, broke any rules or just wanted to be killed), a cell would be left vacant and that would enable another player to join in. Roommates is something that interests me, but I don't want to exclusively pair up two players together in an open environment like this.

By the way, I don't think I explicitly mentioned this, but along with any questions, I am also completely open to any suggestions that could allow players more freedom in this RP. Just as the RP revolves around an experiment, this whole idea itself is an experiment of mine to gauge and assess my own capabilities as a GM and I want to see how well I can play with this concept.

Ech said:

... i kinda wanted to join your RP, so I'm a little discouraged from posting this.

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No, no! Don't be discouraged. You'll be bringing something to this forum that delves into a nicely-contained surreal horror--something hardly, almost barely touched upon here. It'll be a gem! I'm saying if you post this, I'd be fully involved in my participation, and so I may not be able to juggle this as well as leading a whole second group of people with all other kinds of maintenance and whatnot.

I'm taking this a step at a time, really.

Also, thank you for the explanation; I appreciate this. The more you describe possibilities, the more I'm intrigued. I think, though, you may benefit for having a "rest" period in the case of sleepless or more nocturnal creatures, who can try to take advantage of that time--if there is something to take advantage of. It would be fun, too: some exclusive night events for these players. What do you think? Or would that be too broad of a variable to control?

Jauntier said:

No, no! Don't be discouraged. You'll be bringing something to this forum that delves into a nicely-contained surreal horror--something hardly, almost barely touched upon here. It'll be a gem! I'm saying if you post this, I'd be fully involved in my participation, and so I may not be able to juggle this as well as leading a whole second group of people with all other kinds of maintenance and whatnot.

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I feel like the reason why this genre is seldom explored in general is because people carry concerns over the possibility of having to deal with grim subjects and the fear of stirring up some controversy. I imagine some people like roleplaying with others for the appeal of catharsis that plays off some of their casual fantasies and interests. Horror, especially in the psychological department, probably invokes a sense of hopelessness as well as helplessness and maybe the severity of this niche may make others feel too restrictex when it comes to roleplaying. I'm trying to put a more vivid emphasis on levity (the title aludes to this) to hopefully ease players into the darker themes with controlled conveyance rather than just throw everything at them at once and force them to maintain a stern demeanor in their writing; honestly my goal is to endorse empathy between players through their characters and encourage socialization as I feel thus is the biggest advantage to roleplaying as opposed to just writing a novel. Still, I'm aware of the risks behind this and while it can feel very discouraging when people don't show any interest to your ideas (especially for a newbie GM) I completely respect people's opinions.

Rest periods is something I will consider, but since only a few subjects would be active during this period, I wouldn't want the other players during this timeframe if they wanted to participate. But I guess their character could just wake during that scenario - it isn't highly implausible for an eldritch being to ignore one night of sleep, and they could even expose a more vulnerable side of their state when they are depraved of sleep or rest. There may also be a few dangerous moments for the GM character, where sometimes the complex loses power and subjects are free to roam around the facility while the GM character has to hide and get things back to normal before anyone escapes. Without power, the comple becomes very dark and this could also emulate that nocturnal setting for some players to capitalize on.

On the matter if variables to diversify the roleplay, there are a couple of gimmicks and mechanics that will add onto the tone of the story. I may incoporate a "parasite" that infects the subjects, causing them to behave erratic and their mission is to discreetly pass the parasite onto another host without exposing their condition to the GM and getting quarantined. Some of these ideas were based on your ideas in cornered, since they add an extra of depth between the GM and the players that I haven't really seen before. To avoid just copying you, I want to play around with the concept to hopefully add onto the feelings if paranoia without driving the story into chaos. but as I'm typing all this on my phone, I'll probably go over these secondary gimmicks later in more detail, as I have quite a few ideas but feel as if many of them won't be practical. Work is super slow so i decided to reply via phone excuse any errors or typos, the interface here is so finicky and the tabs on top are really peeving me with their tenacity to obscure everything.

Also, I don't think you need to show appreciation for me answering any questions about my idea. I'm more honored when people take the effort and time to even ask me questions, let alone show interest. I know I may act frivolous and impulsive with my long winded babbles and cringey jokes but even if my ideas bomb, I still enjoy any feedback from people.

As a small-time artist who likes doodling muk, I think the biggest fear isn't the possibility of your work getting rejected and criticized by elitist snobs but rather getting ignored and not being able to make any progress because of that. This fear alone almost prevented me from even joining this forum in the first place, despite how friendly everyone is here.

(Gah, I hope I don't give the impression I have crippling anxiety issues or anything)

Ech said:

I feel like the reason why this genre is seldom explored in general is because people carry concerns over the possibility of having to deal with grim subjects and the fear of stirring up some controversy.

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I'm no stranger to so-called controversy, but online, I suppose what I consider a frivolous complaint of other persons concerning said controversy is easily resolved through, well, sheer avoidance on the potential player's part. Those people can talk among themselves in private as is their right to and you won't have to hear it: everyone goes on their merry way the next day. So while I read your hypothesis on the slight with horror, I sit and think to myself, well, on an interface where you can just scroll past something you don't like and passivity is the effortless inaction, what does it matter? Of course, not everyone can compartmentalize like me or have the same values or even see with the same distance I set myself to from problems, and these are things that are not necessarily bad nor am I condemning otherwise. I just think to live and let live. There is always a demand in writing and art for something or other by someone. Make said thing available and the people will flock of their own accord.

As a new GM, you've established yourself already as capable with how you've handled this thread, so I've no worry about you. If other people want to bar themselves to just the regulars in this forum or their "friends", well, there's nothing you can do about it. Luckily, there are people who don't parade around the idea of "no join lists" for role-plays and are willing to enjoy a plot and its posts for what it is.

I say this to say: don't worry about it. Don't linger on doubts if they are of things outside of your own control. People have their own free will. Your concern should be in making your story coherent and functional. People will respond accordingly.

I'm glad my Goro mechanic has inspired you! I hope to see good things from this RP, but I do not think you will have much trouble with this RP, Ech, in truth.

"MEMES ARE PROHIBITED"

Welp looks like i'm out.

What… what did you do?

The Nero said:

What… what did you do?

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Nice Triforce.

This particular CSS' overall height values are mostly by percentages, not pixels, so it is scaled to the dimensions of the screen on which you are viewing.

Also, you're on a damn phone, Nero. How can you fully experience anything positive living like this.

Oddball_ said:

Welp looks like i'm out.

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haha, don't take that rule so seriously. As a memester myself, I am not going to actually kick anyone out if they like using memes or generating them. I mean, the prohibition of memes is a meme in itself.

The Nero said:

What… what did you do?

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I don't know why I found this so funny. I should feel bad since this confirmed my CSS can look ridiculous on certain devices, and now I'm paranoid about how I format the code and everything.


So, uh. Back to the topic at hand. I hope more people who are interested are encouraged to give any suggestions as I continue to develop this RP. But here's a few ideas I've been thinking of affixing onto the Roleplay's mechanics.

1. Mental Parasite / AKA, Town of Salem "SCP Edition" (Subject Name: EREBUS)
This is to enforce further paranoia. Sometimes, one of the subjects will become a host for a parasite. This parasite is not a biological life-form that has a physical form, rather it is a very powerful psychic transmission that exclusively attacks the subject's mentality, affecting their behavior and even their abilities. This is orchestrated through private messages; I just select a random subject at a random time, tell that player they are infected with an invisible brain worm that uses its current host as a vector, trying to infect other subjects. In a certain period of time, players that have been infected have to find a way to get discreetly rid of the parasite. If they are discovered to be infected by other subjects or the researcher, they will be quarantined to avoid an outbreak and eventually terminated. If they manage to hide their condition but fail to cure themselves in time, they also die and the parasite will spread to another subject. Anytime there is an outbreak, the entire complex goes on high-alert so everyone will be fully aware that one of the subjects has been compromised; whether they attempt to deduce who has the parasite, hide to avoid getting quarantined or infected or just carry on obliviously is up to the players.

2. Roleplaying as an entire Room (Subject Name: NEXUS MARE)
I thought about leaving a special slot that lets a player literally roleplay as an entire room that is sentient and capable of changing its interior layout on a whim. The goal for this special character is a little different from the other test subjects; they cannot escape, as they are confined to Sector 13 which was built around it, so instead they can choose to either help the subjects or the researcher, or even just act impartial should they not see either side as favorable. It is literally a room, after all and aside from changing or making things like decor and furniture, it cannot actually move and is completely inanimate in that regard. There are limitations, but it does offer a unique niche for those that want to play as something very bizarre. Again, this is just an idea and nothing is absolute. While they are incapable of harming anyone (they can't like, create a couch to crush someone for example), they can hinder or help the subjects. Because this role plays outside the established rules of the RP, this may require some additional patching to ensure it doesn't become game-breaking or a negligent factor that loses its significance as an independant character.

3. Co-GM, playing as a secondary researcher
As the RP stands now, I currently only have one human character who runs the story and serves as the IC's GM representative. In case people like the idea but don't want to exclusively play as eldritch beings, I thought about allowing an additional slot for a second researcher who will be studying the test subjects. Due to the role of these researchers, they have to Co-GM. I'm personally not up for this, as while it'd be interesting to have two humans work together, it also means that the flow of this RP becomes more competitive since the two researchers would just team up together against the subjects. Not to mention I would have to change too many things to allow a Co-GM to join in.

Ech said:

1. Mental Parasite / AKA, Town of Salem "SCP Edition" (Subject Name: EREBUS)
This is to enforce further paranoia. Sometimes, one of the subjects will become a host for a parasite. This parasite is not a biological life-form that has a physical form, rather it is a very powerful psychic transmission that exclusively attacks the subject's mentality, affecting their behavior and even their abilities. This is orchestrated through private messages; I just select a random subject at a random time, tell that player they are infected with an invisible brain worm that uses its current host as a vector, trying to infect other subjects. In a certain period of time, players that have been infected have to find a way to get discreetly rid of the parasite. If they are discovered to be infected by other subjects or the researcher, they will be quarantined to avoid an outbreak and eventually terminated. If they manage to hide their condition but fail to cure themselves in time, they also die and the parasite will spread to another subject. Anytime there is an outbreak, the entire complex goes on high-alert so everyone will be fully aware that one of the subjects has been compromised; whether they attempt to deduce who has the parasite, hide to avoid getting quarantined or infected or just carry on obliviously is up to the players.

2. Roleplaying as an entire Room (Subject Name: NEXUS MARE)
I thought about leaving a special slot that lets a player literally roleplay as an entire room that is sentient and capable of changing its interior layout on a whim. The goal for this special character is a little different from the other test subjects; they cannot escape, as they are confined to Sector 13 which was built around it, so instead they can choose to either help the subjects or the researcher, or even just act impartial should they not see either side as favorable. It is literally a room, after all and aside from changing or making things like decor and furniture, it cannot actually move and is completely inanimate in that regard. There are limitations, but it does offer a unique niche for those that want to play as something very bizarre. Again, this is just an idea and nothing is absolute. While they are incapable of harming anyone (they can't like, create a couch to crush someone for example), they can hinder or help the subjects. Because this role plays outside the established rules of the RP, this may require some additional patching to ensure it doesn't become game-breaking or a negligent factor that loses its significance as an independant character.

3. Co-GM, playing as a secondary researcher
As the RP stands now, I currently only have one human character who runs the story and serves as the IC's GM representative. In case people like the idea but don't want to exclusively play as eldritch beings, I thought about allowing an additional slot for a second researcher who will be studying the test subjects. Due to the role of these researchers, they have to Co-GM. I'm personally not up for this, as while it'd be interesting to have two humans work together, it also means that the flow of this RP becomes more competitive since the two researchers would just team up together against the subjects. Not to mention I would have to change too many things to allow a Co-GM to join in.

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1. I like the idea of the parasite, but you know, there are people who join an elimination role-play and have outright asked can you please not kill off my character to the GM in seriousness. While I'm not saying to not make an elimination a factor, I will ask you how difficult you think it will be to rid oneself of the parasite, before an issue arises with a player whose character dies, and they swear on their mother that they tried everything. Since it's a parasite of the mind, I don't suspect it will be too hard to get rid of, or that there is only one way to subdue or be rid of it, but without spoiling the fun, my question still stands.

2. Interesting concept, poor player agency. I can imagine that character's posts will be mostly comprised of rehashing introspective summaries of other player's words and actions, and a few wardrobe changes. It doesn't give the player any other reason to participate in the RP than to be a very limited support, as passivity can get to a point where it's a chore to be involved when a more opportune time for their one talent is available. This concept is best handled as a GM character, or some sort of typical functionality of the rooms themselves as orchestrated by the researcher (like a hologram thing). Otherwise--since we're free to make whatever we want in so far as what you've described is capable--let the players choose what to be. If someone signs up as a room, at least they have their own idea of how they want to play their character, instead of something that is especially regulated by the GM as a support.

3. No one quite knows your vision for your story and execution like you do, unless you worked with them on the idea from the start and have clear guidelines and an outline you both have in place to follow. I personally don't fancy the idea of a Co-GM in this instance for the reason that you're a fresh face here and so you haven't really had the opportunity to participate in a role-play to get a feel for who you could trust to understand your personality and motives and to cooperate sufficiently. Having fun chats from time to time is not the same as coordinating together to lead a group of people all on the same page for something you've described as being--to a point--experimental. Besides, you already said you're not for the idea yourself, so why even suggest it to us? You're the GM; if you don't like it or find it to be a hassle, you have every right to dash it, especially now while we're still in the organization stage.