FFVII/FFVIII RP - Brainstorm

Dincht

Dincht

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After having a look at the RP section it struck me that we have a massive lack of Final Fantasy based RP's. Hell, I know we have a massive lack of active RP's in general, but it's the FF based one's that stood out; or lack of should I say.

Anyway, I thought that it may be a good idea to have a discussion with people about what they would like to see in a FF based RP. What do you think good would look like? What idea's haven't worked in the past that we could avoid this time (like my Balamb Garden RP that just couldn't take off :gasp:) It could be that there are several good idea's going around that could combine into making one great storyline, who knows?

There's no second agenda here either, I'm not looking to steal idea's and palm them off as my own. All I want is a successful FFVII/FFVIII based RP that the community can join in on and make a success of. Fingers crossed this can go some way into getting there.

Soooo...

-Have you had any idea's that need a bit extra?
-What timeframe's could work with these worlds? I.E. 3 Years after the main story of either FF, 100 years after, etc etc...
-How many canon's do we use? Should the original/canon split be 50:50?

These are the kind of things I'm getting at. Have a think.

EDIT - So far, here's what people have discussed:

- No canon characters
- Keep it simple. This is in reference to junctioning, GF abilities, no limit breaks etc...
- A plot around the Centra/War of the Sorceress'
- RP member activity
 
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Rewriting the story is more fun. Like Diar's old FFXIII RP which had nothing in common with FFXIII other than the setting. The world is a good place to roleplay, but the story is difficult to fuck around with...so the simple answer is just to disregard it and make up your own that is similar to the original in plot, but goes in a totally different direction.

Personally, I hate canon RPs, because people butcher canon characters with their inaccurate interpretations of them. Original is always better.
 
Yeah, while canon RP's are good, it's usually how the RP'er who interprets it that tends to not do well, trust me, I've tried that and I can't pull it off.

It would be quite interesting to see an AU FF7 or FF8. Heck, I could help you flesh it all out if you need anything of the sort.
 
If you make an FFVIII RP, I want to be the Sorceress. Or the primary antagonist, if the two are not one and the same. /earlyclaim

...oh, and shoot me a PM if you want to discuss plot ideas, plot twists, etc. I love scheming, even if I'm not taking part. I think I enjoy writing the plot more than I do posting sometimes...
 
I actually agree with you. From past experiences I've seen people's RP abilities severely hindered just because they don't fully understand the character they're trying to portray. I don't see it as a problem if one or two canon's are there, but even then, cameo roles perhaps.

The world's that have already been created are so interesting. They also have the benefit of being known, which can make an RP run smoother. People know where places are. It sounds simple, but it's probablt quite important to know where you are...
 
Even cameos are an issue, because you're downplaying the role of pivotal characters to that world. This is particularly prominent with the FF series, which sacrifices the story for the sake of these characters. Better to just pretend they don't exist; wipe the slate clean, and have it set in the same world, just on a separate timeline where those main characters never even existed, and events never happened. Let people create their own story within that world.

Borrow concepts, by all means - like, the idea of a Garden war, Sorceresses, expand on the meaning of the Lunar Cry - and take some out - GFs destroying memories with excessive use, etc - but otherwise make the similarity less important as the original content going into it. That'd be my advice, anyway.
 
Anyway, I'm game for this. I feel I like Balamb down with my terrible record, but hopefully it'll be better with this.

I don't think canon should be involved for the simple fact that I feel canon characters don't usually get used to their full in roleplays like so.

Anyway, I really don't mind throwing in ideas if they're wanted or needed.

I'll be off for six weeks after Christmas, so I'll need distractions.
 
I'm always for a FFVIII RP Farro just lemme know :D, Although I do think Cameos like using Squall etc. is one reason the Balamb one died since some people who choose to cameo kinda poofed xD;;

I'd have to agree on a Whole new storyline with no cameos from the people from the previous story.
 
It seems like the overarching feeling so far is that canon characters are a no no; which makes complete sense to me.

It's good, it already feels like we've made some progress. At least now when someone makes VII/VIII based RP, whether it's one of you guys or me, we'll know what kind of stuff people want to see:

- No canon's
- Exsisting VII or VIII worlds

So far so good, let's keep it going.
 
While I would personally prefer an FFVIII RP, I'll agree with most of what's been said here. Canon characters can be annoying simply because they have an already extensively detailed background personality and such and personally I never really feel I can play a canon character as well as I would like, except maybe Irvine - I can pull that off relatively well. All that being said, unless a canon is central to the story, don't bring them in unless you must and if you have to, place them in the hands of a reliable person.

Something that should be said though is that if you're wanting a successful RP, one of the main things is players who are actually there and don't vanish. That's really what happened with yours Farro. People vanished without a trace and that let to a huge pause in the story while we situated that. Then the second came when several others had RL things come up and that halted things. Not trying to be an arsehole but if we're going to want a successful one, let's look at who is signing up first and find out whether or not they can handle being timely with their posts and by timely I mean they put up a post relatively soon barring RL issues. If we can get people who actually post, then this will go alot better.
 
Well, I'd planned an FFVIII RP (I've got plans for half a dozen RPs, in fact) so I'll abridge my general notes on game mechanics. Most of it is common sense.

+ One GF per character, or no GFs at all. Canon GFs only, because Diar's RP got a tad confusing with original Eidolons, in hindsight. Scrap GF abilities etc; they're just summons, and would act more like Aeons, or Griever, in that they'd be able to fight on their own. Logical. GFs are of equal strength, asides from Eden, which would have plot significance. No Odin or Gilgamesh, because OHKOs are cheap...and Gilgamesh is a canon character.
+ No Limit Breaks. Nothing good ever comes of it. Weapons could be original, but they'd be aesthetic in design (as in, you could have the Lionheart and it'd have the same strength as a regular Gunblade) and related more to fighting style than anything else, and wouldn't give any specific advantage.
+ No Time Kompression, or time paradoxes, or anything to do with time. Assuming there was to be a Sorceress antagonist, her motivation needs to be connected to...something else. I was in favour of something relating to the Lunar Cry, and/or tied in to one of the Gardens, but short of outlining an entire plot, which I never do on account of the fact that revealing plot twists before they happen to the players means I have nothing to surprise them with later, I can't really go into details.
+ Regarding magic setup, I was leaning towards letting people have six spells at most: three at a lower level, two at an intermediate level, one at a higher level. Spells like Aura would have no use, and Ultima/Apocalypse would be off-limits...well, to protagonists. Antagonists are always more powerful~
+ No junctioning, it makes things ridiculously complex. People are good at filling out their character strengths and weaknesses in their profile for the most part anyway. Physically inclined characters would have three lower level spells only, etc. It's a question of balance.
+ Best to have everyone as SeeDs, perhaps, to ensure an equal playing field for protagonists. Depending on the number of participants, they'd need to be spread across gardens, though. I like the idea of Trabia being trashed by Galbadia and Balamb being similarly destroyed or outright conquered, but then, that's to my personal taste, because I like villains to accomplish things.
 
What about an alternative take on the Sorceress' Wars? :monster: The VIII world is rich with history that barely even gets touched on in the game, so making it "canon" wouldn't be so much of an issue. I may be interested in taking part, so long as it is really different from the game itself. :)
 
Alternatively, we could rewrite history a little bit. Perhaps we could have a Sorceress' War that persists to the modern day, or as modern-day as FF8 would allow. This of course requires a Point of Divergence.

The attempt to seal Sorceress Adel fails and she remains President of the Esthar Republic. She would go on to be successful in finding an heir of sorts, someone to transfer her powers to so her successor would carry on her legacy. To ensure that we remove the icky canon problem that we've spent most of page 1 griping about (even me), the successor would not be Ellone, who we could say died in the attempt to seal Adel. This would force her to actually find a new individual to carry her legacy.

How this could pan out would mean that the Sorceress' War still continues between the increasingly authoritarian superpowers of Esthar and the Republic of Galbadia. SeeD would still play a role, and might even see itself be more active on the side of Galbadia, since their original directive is to combat the Sorceress, and thus would make them hostile towards Esthar. We could also institute a rival group, perhaps called the Knights of the Sorceress, which could perhaps serve as Esthar's equivalent force. The downside would be the elimination of SeeD as a Private Military Contractor, but there's nothing wrong with the need of Freelance Mercenaries.

Being who I am unfortunately, I'm not going to just focus on the two world superpowers, I'm going to check on Final Fantasy Wiki and see if I can flesh out bits and pieces for all the other factors, such as the various other countries, and see how I suit that to balance out the two warring states. But other than that, this is my take on a plot.
 
We could always come up with something regarding The Centra. That continent doesn't seem to serve any other purpose other than housing the GF Odin. Why was he there? He might have been guarding something. He might have been in service to whoever resided on the continent, but managed to survive whatever it was that destroyed them. In the game, there's no reason as to why those ruins are there, what they once were or what destroyed them. I think that's something that is very open to interpret however we want.
 
I like the idea of something around the Sorceress' War, and I also like the idea of something around the Centra. Seeing as it's a fairly large continent it seems like a good place to focus on. I'm sure there would be a possibility to combine these two idea's in some way - they're two really interesting subjects.

@Fleur - Everything you've said makes sense. Having limit breaks and GF abilities just open the door to madness in my opinion. Keeping it simple can produce the best results.

Keep the input coming, it's really good stuff so far.
 
Very well then.

Involving the legacy of the Centran Civilization is a pretty interesting subject, giving the Centran Empire's destruction being set somewhere around 80-150 years prior to FF8. However you are wrong when it said that the Centra served no purpose other than holding the GF Odin, as it was that very location where the Crystal Pillar, and thus the key component to what would lead to the weaponization of the Lunar Cry, was located.

Of course, we might uncover other forgotten Superweapons there as well. After all, for much of the history of FF8, the Centran Empire was the equivalent of the Roman, and later Byzantine Empires, and often found themselves in rivalry with both Esthar and the then Holy Dollet Empire (which funnily enough is based off the Holy Roman Empire, makes sense, since Galbadia is usually seen as an allegory to the German Third Reich.)
 
Noblesse Oblige said:
However you are wrong when it said that the Centra served no purpose other than holding the GF Odin, as it was that very location where the Crystal Pillar, and thus the key component to what would lead to the weaponization of the Lunar Cry, was located.
Click to expand...

Well played, sir. :monster: It's been a while since I've actually played this game, and so completely forgot about that. But, as you said, it would make perfect sense for them to have developed other kinds of superweapons, and would make an interesting story element.
 
I've updated the OP to show what's been discussed so far - some really good stuff, so far. A good plot is obviously going to be key to a successful RP, but I don't think it can function properly without a group of dedicated people. Hopefully once this gathers some speed, people such as you guys will be involved.
 
I have an interesting idea I can make out of this, perhaps Galbadia, despite being FF8's equivalent of "army with a country" is on the losing end of the Sorceress' War, and as a result the Galbadian President decides to fight fire with fire, or in this case, find a sorceress to counter Esthar's ruler and their sorceress, only to end up like canon, with the President a smear on the wall and the sorceress' as the new Head of Government with largely the same goals. It could bring a new meaning to the Sorceress' conflict.
 
Noblesse Oblige said:
I have an interesting idea I can make out of this, perhaps Galbadia, despite being FF8's equivalent of "army with a country" is on the losing end of the Sorceress' War, and as a result the Galbadian President decides to fight fire with fire, or in this case, find a sorceress to counter Esthar's ruler and their sorceress, only to end up like canon, with the President a smear on the wall and the sorceress' as the new Head of Government with largely the same goals. It could bring a new meaning to the Sorceress' conflict.
Click to expand...

Something along these lines certainly seems like it could work. The Sorceress' War is something that is well documented throughout FFVIII, but the whole nature of the topic makes it easy to branch off from.

We'll let the idea's continue to roll in for now, but I can already see a few things developing which could lead on to some good things. Perhaps in the new year...

EDIT: Just from reading back through what we've said, am I right in assuming that people would favour a FFVIII RP more than VII? I'm a bit surprised by that based on the popularity of VII, but I'm happy with it.
 
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