Suggestions

[Kitsuyumia]

If you have suggestions post them here

[ThatLewdCat]

Hey. I know that "nobody asked my opinion", but... Suggestions thread kinda implies that, yes?  At the end of the day though, it's my opinion and you are free to disagree/ignore it! Also, please, do not be discouraged by my criticism. I'm trying to help, not stop you from doing what you're doing!  

I'm a fan of all sorts of sci-fi stuff, so this club idea caught my interest right away. However... And I know, "nobody asked my opinion" and all... But I already see a teeny-tiny extra small microscopic "flaw" in the concept. Which can easily be fixed and I can offer ideas how! And I purposefully put it in quotes because while I see it as such, others might not consider it a flaw in any way. But at least hear me out, eh?

 

So, first, about the "flaw" itself.

The premise of the club clearly states: it's a colony ship that departed from Earth in the Sol system. The home-world of Human civilization, yes? Sure, it also states "All seven stars of the Alliance homeworlds had become unstable" - which is vague by itself, but as far as I understand, this implies "alliance of races", yes? Humans AND up to 6 other alien species. Or less than 6, if some of those species inhabit more than one solar system, which is a common thing in sci-fi.

In my opinion, such a setup implies that the ship would be primarily staffed and stuffed with humans. Yes, both crew and passengers/survivors. No matter how friendly the Alliance species are between each other, no matter how many non-humans there are on Earth at the moment of said disaster... The primary goal of a ship that starts from Earth would be to save as many humans as possible. Because, obviously, not everyone is gonna fit into even the largest of ships - simply not enough space, yeah? Many will be left behind. So it's highly unlikely there will be many free spots for "non-humans" either. In case of such a disaster, it would be "save our own people first, worry of diplomatic problems later". Abandoning the non-human citizens of the Alliance behind on Earth in such a setup would be absolutely normal. Along with actual humans who didn't get the ticket to the Ark, yeah?

I do see that this club is brand new, fresh and still just starting out. And still needs work done. But here's what I already see: Species dossier thread already has 2 non-human species listed in it. While Character sheets thread has only one character... who's already not a human either. Which is fine by itself! I know that everyone wants to create something and a whole alien species of unique creatures is awesome. I understand and share the desire for similar stuff!

But... It kinda contradicts the "premise" of the club, yeah? If it's a ship from Earth, why the first species/character in the thread are non-humans already? And what stops others from creating more of their own species/alien characters, following the same line of thinking that it's just fine?  

DON'T GET ME WRONG HERE: I'm not against aliens in such a setup! I'm all for creativity of sci-fi loving people! Because that's quite rare in RP communities. Which is why I'm offering ideas/solutions.

 

Now, the possible ideas/solutions to this "flaw".

These things do need to be "mixed and matched" somehow to reach the final result. By themselves, these things won't fix everything and some of them might be a tad bit extreme/limiting or simply not enough.

First and foremost, the easiest way to fix this simple inconsistency in one easy step is... To eliminate "Earth" from the setup. Not entirely, no! There still could be humans just fine, as part of the Alliance! But... Change the "departure planet" of this particular ship - pick some sort of a "hub planet" that is a home of a whole variety of species from this Alliance. Like, for example, years ago it was a joined operation of all species of the Alliance, terraforming one single planet for everyone to use as a center of trading, diplomacy, all that. It's not Earth(the homeplanet of Humans), nor any of the origin planets of other species in the Alliance. It's pretty much a "neutral ground", shared by everyone. This way the ship's crew and passengers can be a complete mix of races, regardless of any "norms" of how many of this or that species should be aboard it  That's an "easy way out".

Another thought is to possibly "limit" the number of people in general on this ship. Instead of this being a planet evacuation of a little portion of it's population that would barely fit a small percentage on an Ark ship... It could originally be one large space station that has all sorts of people from all sorts of species living on it. Think Citadel from Mass Effect. And this ark ship - while too small to save everyone from a whole planet - is large enough to house everyone from this space station! Everyone saved! No need to start the story off with a bad note! And this way there will be less need for interaction with and remembering all those countless NPCs too, implying it's not like some huge generation ship with millions of people, but just several thousands of people aboard.

This way pretty much the IC/RP interactions of characters are done in a fashion of a TV-show:  the "main cast"(player characters) and "side characters"(NPCs). Think like Star Trek shows - storytelling is shown from the point of view of the "bridge crew", with captain and officers. And that's when Star Trek universe ships having crews of 500 to 3000+ people, depending on age/class/size/function. So all those extra crewmen in the shows are always left behind the scenes, out of the picture, just assuming they are there. Same thing can be done here.

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If you are still adamant about the departure planet being Earth, it's best to establish "quotas" for human/non-human characters. Both in the lore itself AND in OOC fashion. In the lore, it could be... 100 human to 1 alien. While in terms of RP and character creation - for every 3 human characters in the club, 1 alien is allowed. Or something like that. Those are just random numbers. Sure, we can assume that all the NPCs by default are humans. But still this would make quite a salad of characters that are all over the place and not humans. For the sake of logic of this particular setup, this has to be done, I think. And no, that's not racism, that's common sense...  

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Alternatively, @Kitsuyumia, you could be a slightly more harsh GM and establish strict lore yourself - specify the exact species that are in this Alliance yourself. Either ALL by yourself or get help from others. Directly sitting down and writing it all or maybe even make a lil contest for the most creative alien species to join the lore of this club - for people to create several concepts to choose from and add into this Alliance. This would also work well with limiting on numbers of aliens among humans.

 

P.s. I may have gone too far in a few places...

Edited July 4, 2021 by ThatLewdCat

[DreamsnThings]

     as one of the 2 people who had created an alien race. I would like to be upfront and say that i had missed the initial "dooms day" flavor in this scenario an had only initially seen that aliens where allowed, which had slightly skewed my view when creating my race.  personally I agree some slight clarification of what exactly is going on would be appreciated regardless for all those involved.

as for specifically my race... regardless of what happens I think I should still be able to make it work, even if i have to edit the concept from "originating as apocalypses turned sentient and peaceful" to something along the lines of "man made A.I. composed out of nanomachines" assuming such technology was reasonably available. which considering what has been discussed so far, doesn't seem far fetched.

over all I enjoy the discussion, and I'm looking forward to where this takes us

[ThatLewdCat]

I mean... As I said - "I may have gone too far in a few places". Maybe I'm reaching out to logic and trying for things to make sense where they shouldn't. Maybe this club is not intended as something super story-focused, with complex lore, adventures, etc... Maybe it's just a "background", the decorations for lewds in space. Because it's not really stated clearly anywhere... Not yet, anyway.  

So yeah, it would be also nice to know what's the direction for this club? The "goal", so to speak. Is it story, adventures, drama, relationships between "main characters" with some occasional lewds here and there... Or is it just decorations for lewds? Both options are fine. The latter just doesn't really require much complex thought behind the "decorations", really. And all that I've said above, in my first message, is kinda pointless lol.

[Kitsuyumia]

Well in the lore of this rp Earth had become a hub planet itself as in there will be a large number of other species as well but it would have a large human population. Also plus some humans would have moved to other planets as well. There is 7 ships in total so other ships may have a larger population of a different species. 

While there are 7 major planets that make up this alliance this does not mean there can only be 7 species as part of this alliance. As some planets could have multiple species, and there could be people that immigrated from planets outside of the alliance and became citizens of the alliance. However in this case the 7 major planets will be the founding planets of the alliance.

The  whole end of the worlds plot was to force an isolation for the setting. To give a sense of being stuck in this situation and not that people can just come and go as they please. It is supposed to be about the interactions between people who are stuck in a situation where they are now wanderers without a home. The goal of the crew is to survive and find a planet to call home. However the rp itself will focus more on relationships between player characters.

If I feel there is too many aliens I will start to restrict aliens. But as of right now I do not want to place restrictions until it is neccessary. I will keep an eye on the sheets and make adjustments as needed.

[Kissa]

Could I add a small picture of my char on top of my posts? Please?

[Gardsorm]

Exactly how big is the inside of the Colony Ship? Like, big enough to house a city+artificial wilderness, or smaller scale? Answer to that will probably help me figure out what I can suggest for topics. ^^

 

While I'm at it: Is it safe to actually post scenes for our characters right now?

Edited July 8, 2021 by Gardsorm

[Kitsuyumia]

Yes you can start posting in topics. And it is decently massive inside the ship but I would not say there is a full on wilderness in it. The closest thing would be the garden  but what you can do there is much more regulated than the full blown wilderness.

[Gardsorm]

So potentially the city, minus the wilderness. Still good enough to me!

Then, may I request a simple 'Colony City' thread? Basically a catch-all locale for many areas within the ship that may not be important enough to warrant their own threads like what we have already, but still provide a place to house potential locales for players possible scenes. ^^

[Kitsuyumia]

Done

[Mysthero]

So, I had an idea and it's not a requirement or anything.

But I was thinking, since the ARK doesnt have frozen colonists, would there be a breeding program? In an attempt to continue the multiple species on the ship, maybe there is a test everyone has to take on the ship to be selected for breeding.

Obviously participants dont have to get pregnant, the idea behind the program is to increase likelihood of pregnancy.

This would mean strangers who are in the program are given a room, appointment time, and a scheduled time to attempt impregnation.

I just see this as a fun and hilarious way for other characters to meet and awkwardly need to have sex. Obviously I wouldnt want this to be a requirement for the players, I just like awkward encounters where they barely know one another and there is an outside pressure to have sex. XD anyways... up to yall.

[Kitsuyumia]

Well the only thing is I do not think such a program will be neccesary. As sex and child bearing would occur naturally anyways so I just dont think there would be a valid reason for a breeding program.

[DreamsnThings]

For human x human it wouldn't make sense, but for the more unusual species on the ship they may have a breeding program to try and continue their race. Possibly with a specific human with enough recessive genes to result in a nearly pure version of the alien hybrid

[Kissa]

I do like this idea  @Mysthero Especially if it's not like 'now you two get in the room and you won't be getting out before we see some cream pie action in there' but it's more like disguised as program to find a potential spouse, so it's kinda like arranging blind dates for people. Maybe there is some benefit in joining the program, like money, better living quarters or something like that, so people join it for different reasons. In other words, it would be completely optional and it would create a good opportunity for those awkward meetings.

 

[DreamsnThings]

25 minutes ago, Kissa said:

I do like this idea  @Mysthero Especially if it's not like 'now you two get in the room and you won't be getting out before we see some cream pie action in there' but it's more like disguised as program to find a potential spouse, so it's kinda like arranging blind dates for people. Maybe there is some benefit in joining the program, like money, better living quarters or something like that, so people join it for different reasons. In other words, it would be completely optional and it would create a good opportunity for those awkward meetings.

 

If two people register as a couple they get

-a bigger, shared room with their partner

-an increase in personal budget to accommodate preparation for the new crewmate

-higher quality food to provide better nutrition for the new crew

-some paid time off to both encourage production of the crewmate, and allow the couple time to bond

------in order to register as a couple you must

-be capable of breeding or cross breeding with one another 

-confirmed an "injection" of genetic material into a pregnancy capable partner.

-both parties must consent at every step.

[DreamsnThings]

Thats my take on the idea @Mysthero

[Kitsuyumia]

Well its not like anyones race is near extinction. At least nobody has mentioned that about their alien race. Thats why I said to me it would seem like an unneccesary program

[Kissa]

I thought the whole point of this rp is that the ARK is like Noah's Ark. Original planets became inhabitable (or something), so basically people in the ARK are on their long journey to find new habitable place and important part of survival is repopulation. Also, it's possible I have misunderstood something here.

Anyway, even if there is no actual need for such program, it gives those who want to take part in it something to play and I see nothing wrong with that. Very much of rp's success is depending from that how much players are willing to put effort in it and in my opinion every time a player puts some effort in the rp to make it grow, that effort should be embraced. 

[Mysthero]

Not my club, and I know I'm over thinking it! If there isnt a need for a program like that, you are certainly the boss! ^_^

I hope you understand I just thought of it as a fun idea since most of the original human crew would have to be old by now. You dont become captain of an ARK to save countless lives at 15-18 XD

Most naval captains are often in their late 30s when they reach that rank, so you would be looking at the senior officers being well into their seventies and eighties.

[Kitsuyumia]

Well also if you think of it slot of our characters are young and most definately would have been both concieved and born on the ship. And yes most likely people who were initially young kids at this point had been trained to take over or  already had.

[Mysthero]

Sure, sorry if I was causing problems, it was only a suggestion.

[Kitsuyumia]

Its fine. Just logically there seems to be no reason for such a program. But if you want to modify it a bit then there could most likely be a way to make it work. 

[Mysthero]

I mean other that what @DreamsnThings tweaked, not really.

But I mean, if the ship has no population issues, a viable working economy, production and supply, limitless energy, enough housing for millions and millions and billions of potential colonists without cryosleep, working education system, a diverse ecosystem suitable to multiple species. Cities, wilderness, red light district, a proper hierarchy and chain of command with young officers trained to replace the elderly at a moments notice, weapons, defensive systems.

Huh, I guess we have nothing to worry about. Wait... why are we looking for a new home? XP

[Kitsuyumia]

Well the ship is slowly breaking down technically and well yes the ship has enough dpace right now. It could be possible that overpopulation could be an issue. Plus being isolated to a large ship probably is not the most ideal circumstances lol

[DreamsnThings]

Well this all depends on scale and situation, if the ship is big enough to house all of humanity, if theres say hundreds of smaller ships, heading in different directions probing the cosmos, or if its one fairly small ship that houses a small percentage of what was once humanity... theres options here based off the environment