Cortex Game Interest Check

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

Well if the world involved the supernatural in any way it could always be the result of tribal myths. Rare enough but with an origin if a bit undefined maybe they trace to a singular tribe but if they don't come exactly from the same place its because that tribe has obviously spread out. 

Some measure of truth sort of situation. 

[Warning]

The tribe idea's issue is having to write that multiple creatures of that kind exist everywhere. And it would probably cause an issue in the "lores". But if we say "A single one was engineered from birth with human and dog dna, forged with fire then kept prisoner in a dark place where literally nobody but a select few can see her.", we have something.

By this, I'm trying to not create a headache for Isabella while using the "experiment" justification for it. Anything can be created and playing god is not something new. Now, she also doesn't have to breed and reproduce and therefore, we don't have to create a whole bunch of them. She is a lone case, she is a female who can't get pregnant. Bingo.

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

Well I was thinking the tribe idea for the origin if there really needed to be more beastfolk but differences within is another matter. I don't think it would cause too much an issue as we're currently in the "fleshing out setting details" stage I believe but its just a suggestion if there are to be more animal types in the world between groups. 

Edited 10 hours ago by AsBloodTurnsEverCold

[Warning]

Understandable. I was just saying that if that hound was going to be a thing and we want her alone, it is very doable. If I used another character befitting a "tribe" of sort, I'd need an explanation as to how they exist. I can go for many characters but my issue is that I am indecisive with things and trying to find something specific is a little stressful...

I could always go simple with human too but I am poking around and see what works. I rarely do "simple". Obviously, I know there's others in the group so I try to go for something that's generally likes as well. I just tried every tags I could from western, wild west, cyberpunk... Not finding much. That's gonna be harder for me to find something.

Edited 10 hours ago by Warning

[Chiyako]

The animal-type people coming from one source would be a great way to add some strings interconnecting not only people in one group, but possibly both groups, even if they don't start together. I kind of mesh with either the tribe idea or the experiments idea, especially if it allows multiple people to make characters with that sort of thing.

I do have a not so morally good mad scientist character who I have used before as a Vampire, which could have been a part of making something like that if that is the route people prefer. Could probably swing them as an Elf alternatively but I think if we are going to have unnatural things then Vampire type supernatural might fit better.

Otherwise I think I'm leaning more Automaton, that or something that isn't fully Automaton, more of cybernetics experiment. Maybe a living clockwork doll sort of thing. I suppose it depends on how supernatural and how weird tech we want to go.

That or just join in with the not-Humans.

[MagnificentBastard]

3 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

The one thing I want is Prudence Lawton's legacy.

As for your kemonomimi, (back in my day, we called 'em cat girls) - I think the Dr. Moreau angle is completely legit.

I have no issues with yuri, but it raises the question, can an Ashborn Aesthete be a man?

Not sure what Prudence Lawton's legacy is? A Google search didn't help me either.

As for me, the Wild West is contemporary with Victorian Era, and so I am leaning more into that with steam punk. It's not a deal breaker just were my mind is at.

Ill play a human make maybe with a mechanical arm, but nothing crazy.

[Warning]

Oh right... Steampunk, not cyberpunk... No idea why I confused both. Unless it still applies. Well, a dog girl can still apply. She will just be mostly clueless. (And combat oriented.) I can however search for a steampunk theme as well though I doubt I will find anything. Hound on a steam powered train, escaping somewhere still sounds fun though.

[DreamsnThings]

well i would like to throw my hat in the ring for the "why do furries exist" justification

the simple answer is in universe some people with enough money wanted something available to surgically alter their bodies to be closer to their respective ideals, leading to a chemical based venture that ultimately went south, leading to the hybridized forms people wanted... the issue is the fumes spread throughout the city where this research was being conducted infecting and altering peoples bodies at a wide scale, with the intensity of the beastification dependent on how close they were to the epicenter of this event. since then the "infected" individuals have stabilized as the catalyst dissipated but they were permanently changed and the research was currently banned until proper safety measures can be put into place in a controlled setting

its been several years since then and the beast folk have started being able to travel, theres a mix of fear and pity for them from the general populace but in general they are leading happy lives with a degree of government support due to the damages from the incident, there are some less than savory scientist though who continue this sort of research unsanctioned.

i feel like this could give them a defined origin point, a second "home" city, and a bit of inbuilt story opportunities from the race selection without it being the sole focus

[Warning]

Dang... And suddenly, we have furries (if we use that idea). It would definitely open some doors for me, if I used that idea or something. I still think that my modified embryo thing would still work for at least ONE case. But yes... Humans turned beasts, etc. (Some growing older as that from childhood etc.) Sounds like a nice lore bit for it IF we do it.

Edited 6 hours ago by Warning

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

That's a pretty neat idea I think! I don't know what your guy's references for Weird West and Steampunk is so no idea how weird you guys like it or how far Isabella wants to take it but I do like it fairly weird, and a bit anachronistic myself so that sort of origin strikes me as proper. 

As for a list of things I'd personally definitely liked to see touched on: 
- Automatons 
- Airships (barring that just anachronistically good trains) 
- The Ruins of Ancient long-dead (or are they?) civilizations to explore or utilize especially if we're a traveling people. 
- Magic being more esoteric and difficult to fully understand, not something fully controllable even with all the science. It'll really help it feel special especially with a consequence and less gamified even if whatever problem happens to crop up is using it like an evil cult or some such.  

Can't think of much else though. 
Think I've narrowed down the character I wanna play though thinking about all this. Excited to see where all this goes!

Edited 5 hours ago by AsBloodTurnsEverCold

[DreamsnThings]

since we have a degree of control with this setting and narative i would like to make a few pitches for what @AsBloodTurnsEverCold just mentioned and see if any of them strike anyones interest, I enjoy worldbuilding so ill take a few shots.

what if the "desert" that is this worlds wild west is that way due to some sort of ore that generates heat similar to coal without needing to combust, leading to longer duration steam generation in a safer more consistent method, leading to a gold rush of sorts and allowing a few interesting things
-Automatons are a direct result of this process, the controlled burn of this new ore leads metal folk to have more of their mechanics focused on processing power, leading to smaller devices capable of independent thought, which have been used to create automatons that look somewhat human.
-airships, well having existed prior to this, now have an alternative to burning coal to generate their heat, allowing for long periods between restocks of fuel, leading to deeper more thorough exploration of the wild west desert... but restock points still need to exist, which is where the small wildwest style mining towns come in, directly acting as resupply points for the airships
-during these explorations some runes were found in the desert, and some murals there are leading to the belief that this ore might pose a long term real danger if left as is
-the reason this ore is thought to be dangerous is because it directly shows up in these murals with magic, being worshiped like some kind of holy relic, almost as if its a source of this peoples "divine power"

... man i have had too many energy drinks and just wrote an entire setup for this unsolicited based on wildwest steampunk XD ima shush now and have a bagel, let me know if anyone actually likes this, it was fun to write

[StarlitSiren]

Wherein Furry is concerned I'm into the minor use (animal ears/tails, etc, I think there was a term used above somewhere?) But less full anthomorphic; to clarify, that doesn't mean I'm saying 'don't out it in', just that it's something I might ask for a little naughty distance from if we go that route!

Which brings me to my own likes. On that spicy side I'd love Millie to be subject to some mind alteration/mood alteration effects somewhen, with the dubcon idea (think our own game, Isabella.)

 

In terms of world content:

-Tech I can 'MacGyver' given the character premise

-An AIRSHIP (just somewhere. for fun.)

-Intrigue; less of a world thing specifically, but I'd love a bit of a mystery baked in somewhere, despite what we end up playing!

 

I don't have exclusions yet, but shall rack my brain!

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

Idea I'm currently into character wise 

An Ethnomusicologist (A bit anachronistic here if that's alright, the discipline only started in the 1970s though we don't have to give it a name) and popular performer who essentially becomes a cursed to be a conduit for some manner of Eldritch entity to preform music that causes momentary like momentary Psychosis while preforming (whether they're playing guitar, singing, etc and somehow hearing full arrangements or feeling the emotions the music evokes literally and acting on it.) during their study of ancient musics. 

I mean potentially causing a orgy while singing, or forcing people into a little musical...literally. This would mostly happen when they "give in fully" to the music which happens at random or they can choose to do but they must preform. They're trying to find a way out but obviously its not that easy and people might want them (be they law, or cults devoted to the entity). 

Not sure how viable that is in play, would definitely have to be cool with unknowable entities of some sort.
Kinda playing around with the Singing Cowboy archtype and mixing it with some Indiana Jones and Robert E Howard and or Lovecraft. 

[Warning]

With what is said so far, I'm not even sure myself what I want to do. The furry or etc idea is barely in the air so figuring if a character can be made out of it might still be too early. OR I have my dumb puppy to play with. (Who is a human mix with paws. Her skin isn't fur except for where fur is). But yeah, still thinking... I don't really have a solid idea yet.

[IsabellaRose]

9 hours ago, SataiRolePlayingGuy said:

Someone plays the mad scientist or student/heir to the mad-scientist who created them, one possibility?

No one would need to actually play that character, unless they wanted to, but knowing that they were out there, and what their goals were, would give me things to work with from a world-building perspective. Having a "you experimented on me" NPC out there, or a "my father made you" son of said NPC, could lead to some interesting emotional interactions.

 

[StarlitSiren]

Ooooo, let's say Millie's Sister is a big name arms dealer for  a VERY autocratic empire.

[IsabellaRose]

9 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

I don't think that we have to go with the whole package of Dr. Moreau elevating animals. I think there's room for hybridization and "corrective" surgery to create the specific look @Warning is after. The Farmer (not actually a fan of the name, but bear with me a minute) is trying (on behalf of the Army?) to create scouts with better senses like bobcats, the ability to run longer distances like wolves and other improvements to make them better at ferreting out "the savages".

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about!

I don't specifically mean things need to be "exactly" like the sources I mentioned, but give me a plot hook, a piece of history, an NPC, a setup... something I can work with. 

The setting is generally the "real world" of 1880s, altered with steampunk tech, and adding in some supernatural "weird west" ...weirdness, I guess. 

Anyone different, who looks different, etc. Is going to probably be treated as such by the settlers. Think of old western movies, tv shows, and books. People who were different were feared. Now, that's not to say that somewhere in the recent past something happened (WNS's "Farmer" experimenting) that created many hybrids, and they could have even been around long enough that people have heard of them, so maybe the "holy crap what ARE you" fear is slightly mitigated. But in general, we're looking at a population of settlers with mixed education, many religious and superstitious, who might see anything different as the work of "the devil". At least that's how I'd probably run it, unless we come up with a good reason to have them be accepted as a normal part of society.

[Warning]

Funny thing is. If I used puppy, there probably wouldn't be many emotions considering the amount of air in that head. Imagine her just liking basic things like bathing until you give her a reason to fight something for sport. Only emotion I could see out of it, worse if they hurt her, would be a fiery revenge and only if their path crossed.

What I said about "Her being found on a train going somewhere" is basically the sum of what she represents. Just escaping to the wind until she finds a fun thing to do in a world she knows literally nothing about. But again, just the thought when it comes to this specific character. For a character with more self awareness then maybe.

Edited 1 hour ago by Warning

[IsabellaRose]

14 minutes ago, Warning said:

Funny thing is. If I used puppy, there probably wouldn't be many emotions considering the amount of air in that head. Imagine her just liking basic things like bathing until you give her a reason to fight something for sport. Only emotion I could see out of it, worse if they hurt her, would be a fiery revenge and only if their path crossed.

What I said about "Her being found on a train going somewhere" is basically the sum of what she represents. Just escaping to the wind until she finds a fun thing to do in a world she knows literally nothing about. But again, just the thought when it comes to this specific character. For a character with more self awareness then maybe.

This might work as your origin, but as we step through character creation in the Pathways system, you'll be connecting your character to locations, NPCs, the other player characters... the entire point of the game is that it is focused more on the dramatic interaction between characters rather than the nuts and bolts of combat or exploration, or the details of inventory management. 

So if a character starts out as a lone "I don't know anything" kind of person, they'll know something and have connections to various places, events, and people by the time we're ready to start playing.

21 minutes ago, StarlitSiren said:

Ooooo, let's say Millie's Sister is a big name arms dealer for  a VERY autocratic empire.

That's a perfect thing to add during the Pathways process!

11 hours ago, Warning said:

Still figuring things out but yeah. I am also multi-player and I don't know how NPCs and settings work since I figure this is like playing a board game or dnd. BUT if I can make npcs, I will without issues. It's a thing I enjoy a lot for character interaction. I love creating an interactive environment. But otherwise, I'm just really a follower in this, for now...

Everyone will create NPCs during the Pathways game creation/ Character creation /game setup process. But then I'll play them as the GM. Cortex is more or less a traditional TTRPG  from the perspective that you have a character and the GM plays the rest of the world.

[IsabellaRose]

10 hours ago, DreamsnThings said:

Personally im all for animal ears and features and as im in the same set as @Warningi for one vote to allow the floof!

...with that in mind i would also love to work in some rabbit ears to my pheromancer, i have been wanting to play a rabbit folk and this sounds lovely, to me, could even "hide" them with a headband to make them look fake, like shes wearing a playboy bunny esk costume 

OMG! Remind me to tell you about my bunny girl sometime. I'm playing her in a similar setting, but as part of a traveling circus/ "freak" show that also ends up having secret "adult" shows after hours where the pervy settlers can watch horse anthros fuck bunny girls... and more!

[Warning]

26 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

I don't specifically mean things need to be "exactly" like the sources I mentioned, but give me a plot hook, a piece of history, an NPC, a setup... something I can work with. 

I mean, I have it easy on that side if the character is born out of an experiment and kept hidden for years. I will admit the decision for 1880 setting is a bit odd to me. At least according to google, trains did exist in 1880 so yay for getting ONE thing right. Obviously, I could also stick to the realism of that age but I feel like it would lack a touch of something.

Like, a liiittle touch of fantasy to it. A thing I appreciated from Wild Arms as a whole since it was basically the good old wild west with a bit of ancient power, artefacts, ruins, golems and weird stuff that we could define as steampunk (for how those times made it make sense). Also why I showed a pic of Rebecca before as example, if someone didn't know it.

I dunno. I'm just hoping to not limit it to something too realistic. But some characters like I mentioned so far in an old wild west setting seems crazy enough to be fun. The dog is just an example. As I said, I am still in thinking process because I don't know yet how far I can push it. (Humans feel boring most of the times and nobody likes them. /half sarcasm)

6 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

This might work as your origin, but as we step through character creation in the Pathways system, you'll be connecting your character to locations, NPCs, the other player characters... the entire point of the game is that it is focused more on the dramatic interaction between characters rather than the nuts and bolts of combat or exploration, or the details of inventory management. 

So if a character starts out as a lone "I don't know anything" kind of person, they'll know something and have connections to various places, events, and people by the time we're ready to start playing.

I mean, by that context, it depends on how long she wanders around aimlessly. Also, I have no idea what pathway means and I googled it. If characters HAVE to connect somehow, it almost sounds like the start to Wild Arm 3. (Yeah sorry for mentioning WA a lot) but, 4 random strangers on a train, all there for the same objective until they have to team up.

The puppy was merely an example because it felt westernish enough by image and I just felt like cooking a reason to her existence. I could try to force finding something else but at some point, I may need AI or something to make something for me since image databases are not being very cooperative with what I am looking for right now. It's annoying...

I suppose if I made a kind of WA Drifter (Someone who travels about a lot), it could work. But since I have NO idea of what I am making something for right now, it's hard to make an actual character with a back story IF they're even supposed to have one. And if it's just a new character fresh out of the box, the "connections" will be hard to make, I believe...

I might sound clueless and dumb like this but I'm totally blind despite all the discussions we've had so far. We talked of possibilities but not of an actual "Here's how things should start and so, this is how the characters should make sense in that picture." So I'm just thinking very vaguely right now, fueled by adhd nonsense, until I can make sense of things.

[IsabellaRose]

8 minutes ago, Warning said:

I will admit the decision for 1880 setting is a bit odd to me. At least according to google, trains did exist in 1880 so yay for getting ONE thing right. Obviously, I could also stick to the realism of that age but I feel like it would lack a touch of something.

Like, a liiittle touch of fantasy to it. A thing I appreciated from Wild Arms as a whole since it was basically the good old wild west with a bit of ancient power, artefacts, ruins, golems and weird stuff that we could define as steampunk (for how those times made it make sense). 

I dunno. I'm just hoping to not limit it to something too realistic. But some characters like I mentioned so far in an old wild west setting seems crazy enough to be fun. The dog is just an example. As I said, I am still in thinking process because I don't know yet how far I can push it. (Humans feel boring most of the times and nobody likes them. /half sarcasm)

My first post specifically said:

"set in an 1880s wild west / steampunk / weird science world. Imagine someone combined the works of Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, HP Lovecraft, and HG Wells, added in a dash of Nikola Tesla, a pinch of Indiana Jones (without the Crystal Skull nonsense), mixed in Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Doc Holliday and all the wild west tropes you can imagine, maybe added a bit of mad scientist and supernatural weird west nonsense, and dressed it all up in steampunk finery... and you're looking at the general idea for the setting."

If you look at the authors I cited, they all used speculative fiction to examine the rapidly accelerating scientific and industrial progress of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and they were often inspired by contemporary scientific ideas. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley addresses the ethical dilemmas of scientific experimentation and the potentially monstrous results of "playing God," a concern later explored by H.G. Wells in The Island of Doctor Moreau. Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires featured incredible, scientifically grounded inventions like the submarine Nautilus, but Lovecraft and Wells often portrayed technology as a gateway to horrors. Adding in the real-life wild west heroes, the often outrageous and futuristic ideas of Tesla that blurred the lines between science and fantasy, the adventure and hints of supernatural power of Indiana Jones, mad scientists and weird west (supernatural horror) were all meant to evoke a specific image of the setting which we seem to be moving away from. 

The main thing about most of those sources is that the protagonists are all very human, even when dealing with very supernatural, alien, or horrific threats. The mysterious, the magical, the monsters and otherworldly entities, they're all things the characters have to come face to face with, to deal with, to survive, sometimes to defeat, sometimes to live with... 

So you can see where this is moving away from my original idea for the game. I'm not saying I don't like some of those ideas, just that we're moving away from the setup, and some other players may be less interested in a world of cute floofy anthros since that wasn't part of the original pitch.

SO... maybe the two games aren't in the same world. I've heard from most of the Game 2 players who seem to enjoy similar setting and character ideas, but not from most of the Game 1 players.