What You Want To See

[Airan]

Oh yeah, that definitely works and makes it a lot more flexible for everyone. Sounds good to me :)

[Vin]

To be honest, I was more imagining this happening actually several years before the whole Atlas/Blade debacle? it's just that gladiatorial battles a la muerto really seem to be somewhat backward, if not wholly barbaric, when you think about the supposedly civilized society that Nossflower is becoming. I guess they could just be a function of the northlands, though? harsh places = harsh people, I suppose.

[Zevka]

Updated: edited my previous post to reflect that this takes place a few years before Blade and Atlas come into the picture.

[Istvan]

I guess they could just be a function of the northlands, though? harsh places = harsh people, I suppose.

No kidding

[Frost]

I'm curious to know (and granted, this would be with the admin's approval), but would anyone who submitted an app that doesn't place be willing to let their characters appear as NPCs in the main story?

[Ashleg]

I wouldn't want mine to. I put a lot of thought into them and will use them for something else if they don't get in.

[Vizon]

You guys - don't you realize you're asking for your characters to become arena fodder???

[Rascal]

You make that sound like a baaaaad thing :)

[Matra Hammer]

Tough business. And somehow the owner of the non-10 app must confer with the cast member without giving away identities either way. Strange anonymity business I can't answer.

At the core of the matter? I've some stakes in the character(s) created, but if a cast member sees a possibility then I've no objection. Unless it's for ridicule.

[Rascal]

In the end I think simplicity is best.

The only way I could see that working to use runner up apps as npcs is to let the players who did get in use them fully with out confering with the player that created them. Basically taking them on as their own creation to use as grizzly meaty cannon fodder. Wich is...kind of complicated xD

I was only joking about throwing my characters into an arena meat grinder.

Wow, I've talked a lot about meat today but that's what you get with bacon cooking in the background c:

EDIT: Different players would have different opinions on it but as for myself I would laugh if I saw a player giving one of my runner up apps a cameo as beasts fighting in the arena, although I still wouldn't recommend it xD

[Tooley Bostay]

I know for my part, I'd be fine with relinquishing my characters to be used as NPCS. So long as it's in-keeping with their character as established in the app, I think it'd be really cool to have some of the "arena fodder" draw from the top 30. Makes it so that the cast doesn't have to create Jimjoe the Rat as NPCs to kill, but it also gives some context to the depravity of the coliseum for the audience. We'll know who some of those characters are, albeit perhaps vaguely, and we'll know what their dreams and journeys might have been, and yet their lives are cut short due to the workings of the Crater. It'll sting, in some cases, and that's good, I think.

I agree that simplicity is best, though. If any of the Top 30 get in as NPCs, it should be completely up to the cast to use them however they please.

[Rascal]

When you put it like that, I can see that being fun xD

[Airan]

I've been debating trying to set up an audience RP so that anyone who doesn't get into the story as a cast member, can still play as their character within the world and even have some slight say in the story as a result. I don't know the specifics of how I'd set this up- though I know it would have to be somewhat moderated because the RPers shouldn't be able to push the story faster than the contestants can write their posts.

I think in the prologue it mentions that there's a group of gladiators that are active while the others are being trained. Maybe once the story officially begins, the contestants can be the 'active' gladiators while the characters who don't make the cut, that wish to join in on the RP, can be 'the next in line.' That way they can write their own sort of plotlines which can affect the main story subtly without taking full control of it as well. And maybe, depending on how the story goes, they could get a bit more involved as time passes. Maybe some mooks get killed off in the ring by the contestants, and they need to fill spots? Or a daring escape and revolt happens, and they get busted out too? Dunno.

All of that is super tentative because I don't possibly have any idea how the story will be planned to progress, but it's an idea, and allows you to retain control of your characters and keep them in the story somewhat. We actually did this a long time ago with Redventure 5, and Sycamore's character Birch grew to be such a popular character that she became an NPC with immunity in the main plot- and even got a full portrait artwork like the rest of the contestants lol.

Anyways, that's all super tentative, but I'll definitely keep thinking on it and if there are interested parties after the top 10 are decided, I'll see if I can make it work.

Otherwise, we'd likely just do what we did in MO3- which is just occasionally name drop some of the 30 whenever we saw a fitting opportunity. (Heck, one of them -not saying which-, I have plans on making a semi-important character in MO5.) Though, in an arena type setting, this might be hard to do without just killing them off. We'll see though, and if I ever did that, I would ask the author before I made that decision. Just respectful, you know.

[Vera Silvertooth]

Zevka would have the final say in this, though I think it's a great idea for those who want to donate their characters for NPC roles. Perhaps there could be a separate thread made after the top 10 are chosen where anyone who wants to donate their characters as NPCs could post?

I might be remembering wrong, but I thought that there was a thread in MO3 where people revealed what apps they wrote (outside of the top 10) once the contest got underway.

[Matra Hammer]

A non top-10 side RP sounds wonderful. A lot depends on what the main writers create, or what the admin presents, but there's real potential for some fun. I'd suggest a time warp - the side RP happened before the current events of the contest. This way the RPers and/or short story writers can put down some groundwork for themselves that can potentially be used by the main cast. Crater look entirely different in the side RP from what's there in the current cast? Renovations (Nire is a carpenter.) Main cast uses something from the side RP but something in the side RP changes and makes a future use impossible (example: side RP mole dervish dies in side RP AFTER main cast slides her into the current plot)? Copycat fighter/descendant/whatever since this is an arena that attracts all kinds.

Whatever fits and is fun.