Doomsday By Design -- Collaborative Story [ WORKING THREAD] [Updated!]

Hey everybody.

This is a Collaborative Writing Project. It is open to members who have the Writer status. For more information about that, please visit this thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Our own XxNightAngelusxX has provided all of the hard work for this project. She will serve as the driving force of the story or "Nature", with me moderating and overseeing. Let it be known that she is the authority on all things regarding this story. I am simply here to provide guidance and to deal with the paper work.

Here are the guidelines set by Angelus:

1 - No bending logic. As a general rule, keep all your character's actions moderately realistic (meaning, no turning around and shooting five guys in two seconds flat flawlessly).

2 - No character cropping (we can't have the main characters running rampant and killing each other off). Fighting and squabbles are okay, but only the story teller decides when its fit for any character to die.

3 - Anyone who wishes to participate MUST have posted their character stats in THIS THREAD by June 10th. NO posting questions in the story thread. This thread will be used for all questions, answers, and character stats. The story thread will ONLY be used for the story.

4 - Character stats will be modeled after the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats in the Fallout series;

Strength - 5
Perception - 5
Endurance - 5
Charisma - 5
Intelligence - 5
Agility - 5
Luck - 5

Every character starts out with five points in every category (35 over all). You may add five points to your over-all stats. You may also subtract points to your existing five to that you can add them to other categories. You can not start out with more than 40 stat points.

You may also NOT start with any stat below 3.

These points are mainly to determine what skills your character will have, and how likely their efforts will be when they attempt to do complicated or difficult things. Since this is not a traditional role play, and we have no way to use dice to determine difficulty, successes, or fails, Actions will fall under one of three categories;

Simple, moderate, or difficult

If an action is simple, it will only require 5 skill points in a particular S.P.E.C.I.A.L. category to achieve. If it is considered moderate, it will require 7 points. If it is difficult, it will require 10 points (10 points is the maximum amount of points you may have in one category).

It will be up to the story teller (XxNightAngelusxX) and the staff (Tenth) to determine which tasks are considered simple, moderate, and difficult.

5 - Please provide a back story for your character. It doesn't have to be terribly long or drawn out, but it would be very helpful to all of us in understanding the story (and your character's motives) if you post a summary of their life story along with their character stats. It can be as long or as short as you like.

6 - Please use correct grammar.

7 - Your character stats should look like this;

Name -
Age -
Gender -
Disposition -
Appearance -

Strength - 5
Perception - 5
Endurance - 5
Charisma - 5
Intelligence - 5
Agility - 5
Luck - 5

(Post character back story here)

With these guidelines in mind. Please post your characters and your back stories. Once everything has been worked out Angelus will give the go a head and we will post the official story thread.







***IMPORTANT NOTICE***

To all those participating!

You cannot control NPC's behavior or actions. Non player characters, as in players created and inserted by nature are for story purposes and only available to the administrators of the story.

If you wish to create your own side characters for story development:

post the requests within the working thread. You'll need reasons as to why this character is vital to your story, or the story at large.

Remember that this is COLLABORATIVE. It does not mean you use each other's characters, it means that within this thread you work on creating the story together.

edit on 6/3/2014 by tothetenthpower because: (no reason given)

The below is your Synopsis for the story. Please build your characters around this information.


September 2, 2027

No one in the North American Union was aware of the struggles overseas. They weren't the type of issues any sensible government would plaster on the news, and most of the citizens in North America were entirely blissful, oblivious to the invisible wheels around them already set in motion, slowly unraveling their economy in ways they couldn't yet perceive.

The North American Union's luck was finally beginning to run dry, quite literally... and although their oil was no longer being distributed around the continent, no one noticed the shortage just yet. The news kept vigilant regarding individual homicides, new stores opening, and the ongoing controversy surrounding gay marriage.

Prices on gas began to rise, but the media gave it little coverage. Today, a few people noticed that the gas prices had risen by about 50 cents, though they all dismissed it as a simple, annoying burden God had placed in their lives to ruin their day. And as they sped off to work, sipping their coffee and fighting the morning traffic, clerks and managers at the gas stations were hearing whispers and rumors from their superiors, indicating that they would not be getting their gas pumps refilled any time soon.

September 4, 2027

Gas prices had sky rocketed in only two short days, and while the media gave this issue a small amount of calm coverage, the people were outraged. It seemed the local news stations were paying more attention to the spreading red flu, rather than the horribly damaging gas prices. Many folks found it peculiar that a new flu had surfaced from seemingly nowhere--especially because flu season was months away--and conspiracy forums flooded with speculative and mildly paranoid possibilities surrounding the gas prices and the new flu.

The red flu, as described on the news, was a strange new flu circulating around the world, which had all the symptoms of an ordinary flu, with the exception of coughing blood. Naturally, the strong suggestions given by the media to take the new flu vaccine was also overwhelmingly covered by conspiracy news forums and the alternative media, accusing the government of manually manifesting an unnatural flu and an unsafe vaccine to kill off the over populated world so that it might be more easily controlled. Of course, these ludacris accusations were given little attention by mainstream outlets, and what little coverage was given to them was nothing short of mocking and laughable.

September 9, 2027

Because many people were hiding in their homes, due to the gas prices having reached an alarmingly unaffordable level, and the red flu filling the hospitals with victims of the flu and its vaccine, many jobs were lost, and the economy was, slowly and horribly, beginning to crumble. Some schools shut down temporarily shut down, while others struggled to continue their daily routines. Only students who walked or rode the bus were attending school anymore.

The red flu was infecting large cities, but most of the smaller towns in the entire North American Union hadn't even heard of the flu. The gas shortage, however, was everywhere, and everyone was suffering because of it.

September 11, 2027

As the government and the media were answering less and less questions, the largest cities were beginning to experience protests and riots. Small towns hadn't yet felt the impact of the dying economy, and continued their daily lives best they could, but it was only a matter of time before the ripple effects would meet with every corner of the world.

One of the many tiny towns was a place called La Nueva Era, which was located just outside of the Mojave Desert. The inhabitants of this little conglomeration were small in numbers, but plentiful in variety. Some of them were old Texan families, a few of them had migrated from the southern east coast, and a handful of them had come from California to escape the state wide gun ban. Unlike most places in this day and age, most folks in Las Nueva Era were survivalists, who practiced gardening (as much as the climate would allow, anyway), hunting, food preservation, and water purifying. While they were moderately independent in some aspects, you couldn't rightfully call them doomsday preppers... because none of them were prepared for a day like this.

As the youngsters of Las Nueva Era headed to school, none of them could have possibly anticipated what drastic changes their lives would soon endure, and that the world around them would cease in its tracks.

I love this idea!

Will watch it from the sidelines, though. This looks like a time intensive project.

But for an excellent project!!!!!!!!!

a reply to: tothetenthpower
Sounds interesting.
I am gonna have to look into the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats for Fallout or ask my boys about it.
I have not role played In years apon years so this ought to be a hoot.

Questions:
Any more forthcoming info on the storyline?
Should we include our role (occupation), in Las Nueva Era with our backstory, or leave that to the story teller?

originally posted by: Quadrivium
a reply to: tothetenthpower
Sounds interesting.
I am gonna have to look into the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats for Fallout or ask my boys about it.
I have not role played In years apon years so this ought to be a hoot.

Questions:
Any more forthcoming info on the storyline?
Should we include our role (occupation), in Las Nueva Era with our backstory, or leave that to the story teller?

You may include your occupation, but keep in mind most of the main characters are meant to be seniors in high school. They're all in the same class when the SHTF. I'm about to post the story thread, it will elaborate on the setting much more.

The main characters are supposed to be a bunch of misfit 18 year olds, but you don't HAVE to be a student if you don't want to. Your character may be somewhere else in the town, and the group comes across them shortly after TSHTF, and they decide to team up. By all means, post as much information about your character as possible!



ALSO, the Fallout stats are explained in the OP. Just take the stats posted and add five points however you please, and you'll have your personal character's stats.

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxXThanks!
I see that you have another thread on this, somehow I missed it. Gonna go check it out.
Quad

AFTER posting your character stats, the story thread is ready to rumble, guys! Remember that all questions, comments, and stats are to be posted in the working thread only.

Doomsday By Design (STORY THREAD)

Have fun!

This is a great idea for a collaborative writing project. I see that the theme here is to play a student on a field trip, all is well before all of a sudden an unexpected dooms day scenario occurs.

I'm interested in this project so I will post my character idea here.

Name - Jackson W. Sumner

Age - 17

Gender - Male

Disposition - Slight temper, usually works well with others unless provoked, tends to stick up for the bullied and disadvantaged.

Appearance - Height, 5'9, dark shoulder length hair, Caucasian, wears typical teenage clothing (jeans, tees, prefers skater shoes), tends to utilize the "casual" look.

Stats:

Strength - 7
Perception - 5
Endurance - 6
Charisma - 5
Intelligence - 5
Agility - 8
Luck - 4

Short back story:

Jack has had a hard home life. His mother is an alcoholic and his father is a trucker who only comes home once or twice a month. A "latch key kid" of sorts, Jack has had to learn how to be independent. He usually cooks his own meals and stays out as long as he wants. Despite the hardships, Jack has managed to excel as an "average" student with passing grades despite his personal troubles so far in his young life. There have been several occasions where Jack was caught fighting on school grounds. In most instances, this involved Jack sticking up for the younger or weaker kids who get bullied a lot. However, there was one occasion this year where Jack was suspended 2 days for rendering a student unconscious for "talking smack" about his mother.

Jack has taken a liking to wrestling and hopes to go to the upcoming state championships, if he can stay out of trouble from here on out. Jack has the tendency to be a "class clown" as a means of escape when trying to cope with difficult encounters or problems. Overall, Jack is well-liked by others and people generally enjoy his presence. Jack aspires to become an aviation mechanic and has planned to join the Air-Force after he graduates high school.

a reply to: Wookiep

Amazing! Completely wicked! You're free to narrate your character's actions in the story thread now. The main characters are in a class intended for emotionally disturbed delinquents, so Jackson should fit in wonderfully (just like my character, HA)

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxX

Excellent, thanks!

Is the story thread up now, or will I be notified once it's created? If it's up, can you please link it, thanks!

EDIT- Ok I see it isn't up yet, I would like to ask for a U2U once it's up, as I may not see it!

a reply to: Wookiep

Its up! Right here;

Doomsday By Design (STORY THREAD)

*Bump* We need more participants here, this could be interesting but we need more people to join!

originally posted by: Wookiep
*Bump* We need more participants here, this could be interesting but we need more people to join!

I concur!

I set the character creation deadline for June 10th. That's nine days away.

Figured that'd be plenty enough time for the writers to jump in.

EDIT; Also, I have a question for Tenth.

The thread bleeps out the word "window" ...... why is that?

Y'all just keep your heads down and stay quiet. Don't want y'all getting shot before we get there.
I have no idea where Sarah's bunker is and with all the shooting going on she needs to stay alive (at least until I get to safety).
Seriously though, tomorrow is Monday and you should see a jump in people joining.
Quad

a reply to: Quadrivium

Hah, thanks Quad. Jack hopes to meet your acquaintance soon.

Sue-Lin Waters

Age 17

Appearance - Chinese, short, slim. May look nice, but no one has got close enough to find out. Epitomes the word Loner, wears clothes that are too big and her hair always seems to be over her face.

Adoptive Mother: US citizen - Deceased.

Adoptive Father: Australian Citizen, ex Special Air Service.

At age 10, Sue-Lin was found in a room with a very dead enemy General, his death the result of a knife through the throat. In one of those "It never happened" type of military actions involving Special Forces, an SAS Strike Team were in a foreign country, without permission, creating controlled mayhem to complete their mission. They were supposed to grab the General but they decided to take the girl instead. They had room for a passenger, and they did not want to leave her to her fate. It was obvious to anyone that the General had tried to rape the child and somehow ended up dead.

The SHTF when they returned with the child but the SAS Strike Team just kept up an Australian barrage of humor to wear the Brass down. The child was given a new identity and the Sergeant was about to retire anyhow. His retirement present, one of many, was a young girl to be raised by he and his wife.

They moved to the US where 3 years later the mother died in bank robbery gone wrong. Officially she was killed when struck by a ricochet because that was what the Police report stated. Father and Daughter left the city where neither was ever truly happy and moved to this small town.

Sue-Lin was happy here. Even the class suited her, she could learn at her own pace. She could learn whatever she wanted as long as she handed in her assigned work. She was gifted, but she knew she had to stay under the Radar so to speak. She was well aware that a General had been training her as a child assassin and she had taken great satisfaction to show him how good she actually was, but, she also knew that keeping a low profile might be important.

Since they had moved here, her Father had added much to her training always saying, "The more I train you, the better off you will be, no matter what comes on life's little path.

Stats:

Strength - 3
Perception - 8
Endurance - 6
Charisma - 3
Intelligence - 8
Agility - 8
Luck - 4

Anything else.

Warning! I have no idea what I am doing but lets have some fun. Never role played in my life.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Sue-Lin sounds like an intellectual bad-ass. I can't wait to see what she has to bring to the table.

Name- Marcus Pearson


Age-17


Gender-Male

Disposition- A quiet young man that is part of none of the "cliques" in school. Observant, but tends to keeps his opinions to himself.

Appearance- 5' 7", has long black hair, brown eyes, wears the typical jeans,t-shirt and sneakers like lots of kids his age but always has his grandfathers old pocket watch.

Strength-4
Perception-8
Endurance-4
Charisma-5
Intelligence-7
Agility-6
Luck-6

Back story:

Marcus moved into town just at the end of summer and has had a hard time fitting in. His father moved the family out to La Nueva Era to escape the confiscation of his guns in L.A. He understands why his dad did it but resents what he feels is his lack of a voice in the decision. His dad is a machinist who dabbles in gunsmithing and his mom is a waitress at a local diner. A only child Marcus is a constant source of arguing between his folks. Intelligent but a bit of a slacker, Marcus has managed to skirt by due to intelligence.

New school, new friends this not how he wanted to start his senior year at all. On the first day of school Marcus learns firsthand it was going to be a up and down situation in La Nueva Era. Two of the football team see him looking at his watch before classes started and decide that the new kids old fashion watch would be better in their possession. Fortunately for him their antics attracted the attention of Jackson Sumner, who intervened on his behalf and Marcus makes his first friend in the strange new school.

a reply to: hangedman13

Nice, Marcus and Jackson have a history, and are good friends now. Let's do this!

I do have one question so I can figure out more about how I write my character. How long has school been in session before shtf? I assume only a few days but want to make sure.