Plot Ideas
Dorwode (witchhunters in the 19th c.)
Recently relocated to the growing city of Riviera, the Dorwode is the last surviving witch hunting school in Vont. There, initiates train to dispatch monsters. The final rite of passage in any hunter’s training is to successfully complete a contract with a peer (chosen on their behalf) and to return with the client’s seal, a confirmation of the task's completion. What at first appeared to be a rout exercise from their lessons twisted into a strange mystery with a foe of far greater strength than either of them anticipated.
Extended Plot: The following can absolutely be deviated from or ignored, I'm including it to give a possible starting point for brainstorming: When the hunters are sent on their rite of passage, they discover that The Vowed Pack is behind the recent killings to the north. The Vowed are a pack of werewolves that once partnered with the Dorwode to hunt monsters. When there were no more monsters to hunt, The Vowed retreated into the mountains. Discovering this information, would set the pair on a hunt for the Vowed. Unbeknowst to them, they are carrying out the plans of a fellow hunter who intends to open the doors to the fourth realm and renew the age of monsters.
Character: I have four characters that are eligible for use. Which one I go with depends upon the character and story you're looking to tell. While the above plot centers witch hunters, we can mix it up and have the leads be something else, one of the Vowed, for instance.
Setting: The great testaments to Vont’s strength were monolithic cathedrals built and established in its gothic era. While the structures are still considered symbols of Vont and its people into the present, technology and industry have begun to supersede religion’s role within society. The Merchant Council, the approximation of law within the land, are building railways to connect the throne cities and vestiges of the ancient kingdoms are being retooled to provide modern convenience. In this shifting landscape, the Dorwode has become largely irrelevant; the Dark Age ended a century ago with the mass migration and/or extinction of monsters and many of the contracts that sustained the Dorwode are fast-approaching their ends.
Magic: Alchemy is the most powerful natural magic available to humans; by mixing substances together, magical effects can be achieved. The Dorwōde developed powder sorcery, a process that makes magical bullets. An alchemic mixture is placed in the bullet’s center, between its head and primer. Runic writing on the casing delivers instruction to the substance inside. The bullet is overspun and as it disintegrates midair, the magic is sparked. With a metal of their making, they can make layered bullets that create complex spells. Otherwise, each bullet is considered a single line of instruction and each bullet within a revolver adds to the spell. Each alchemic bullet must be handmade and all hunters are trained in the bullet’s creation.
Other forms of magic in humans are exceptionally rare and they produce only minor effects. Other creatures, however, may be capable magicians. This includes witches, gods, spirits, and the like. Halflings exist within the world but anything that isn’t purely human is considered a monster by Vontian society and is therefore subject to the treatment of monsters/is not protected by human law.
Note: This setting is part of a world building project I’ve been noodling on for a couple of years now. Since I’m just now starting to actually produce stuff within this world, I’ll be bringing in a lot of elements from my project in order to test them out and explore them (and that’s totally why this thing is so long, sorry). I absolutely want you to contribute, add your own ideas, and to suggest changes that you feel would make the game more fun for you! I can always do my thing on my own time, so please don’t let my geeking out discourage you!
Primary Inspirations: The Witcher 3, Dragon Age (series), Six of Crows (series), Mistborn (series), The Gentleman Bastard (series), The Order: 1886
Recently relocated to the growing city of Riviera, the Dorwode is the last surviving witch hunting school in Vont. There, initiates train to dispatch monsters. The final rite of passage in any hunter’s training is to successfully complete a contract with a peer (chosen on their behalf) and to return with the client’s seal, a confirmation of the task's completion. What at first appeared to be a rout exercise from their lessons twisted into a strange mystery with a foe of far greater strength than either of them anticipated.
Extended Plot: The following can absolutely be deviated from or ignored, I'm including it to give a possible starting point for brainstorming: When the hunters are sent on their rite of passage, they discover that The Vowed Pack is behind the recent killings to the north. The Vowed are a pack of werewolves that once partnered with the Dorwode to hunt monsters. When there were no more monsters to hunt, The Vowed retreated into the mountains. Discovering this information, would set the pair on a hunt for the Vowed. Unbeknowst to them, they are carrying out the plans of a fellow hunter who intends to open the doors to the fourth realm and renew the age of monsters.
Character: I have four characters that are eligible for use. Which one I go with depends upon the character and story you're looking to tell. While the above plot centers witch hunters, we can mix it up and have the leads be something else, one of the Vowed, for instance.
Setting: The great testaments to Vont’s strength were monolithic cathedrals built and established in its gothic era. While the structures are still considered symbols of Vont and its people into the present, technology and industry have begun to supersede religion’s role within society. The Merchant Council, the approximation of law within the land, are building railways to connect the throne cities and vestiges of the ancient kingdoms are being retooled to provide modern convenience. In this shifting landscape, the Dorwode has become largely irrelevant; the Dark Age ended a century ago with the mass migration and/or extinction of monsters and many of the contracts that sustained the Dorwode are fast-approaching their ends.
Magic: Alchemy is the most powerful natural magic available to humans; by mixing substances together, magical effects can be achieved. The Dorwōde developed powder sorcery, a process that makes magical bullets. An alchemic mixture is placed in the bullet’s center, between its head and primer. Runic writing on the casing delivers instruction to the substance inside. The bullet is overspun and as it disintegrates midair, the magic is sparked. With a metal of their making, they can make layered bullets that create complex spells. Otherwise, each bullet is considered a single line of instruction and each bullet within a revolver adds to the spell. Each alchemic bullet must be handmade and all hunters are trained in the bullet’s creation.
Other forms of magic in humans are exceptionally rare and they produce only minor effects. Other creatures, however, may be capable magicians. This includes witches, gods, spirits, and the like. Halflings exist within the world but anything that isn’t purely human is considered a monster by Vontian society and is therefore subject to the treatment of monsters/is not protected by human law.
Note: This setting is part of a world building project I’ve been noodling on for a couple of years now. Since I’m just now starting to actually produce stuff within this world, I’ll be bringing in a lot of elements from my project in order to test them out and explore them (and that’s totally why this thing is so long, sorry). I absolutely want you to contribute, add your own ideas, and to suggest changes that you feel would make the game more fun for you! I can always do my thing on my own time, so please don’t let my geeking out discourage you!
Primary Inspirations: The Witcher 3, Dragon Age (series), Six of Crows (series), Mistborn (series), The Gentleman Bastard (series), The Order: 1886
gold rush (post-apocalyptic weird western)
The golden shore was dirtied to bronze by the fleets of colonists that came off the horizon. They settled the shore and expanded west, first slowly and then rapidly as the frontier was sliced up by opportunists thinking themselves the foremost victim. Westward they went, taking with them their smokestack slums, the shovels shifting to industrial drills, and feet-stamped paths hardening into the highway headed straight for the virgin heart. They went west. And they met this land’s makers. They woke them from centuries-long slumber, rousing the maker-gods from their warm beds in subterranean gorges. These gods weren’t theirs, or they weren’t of the gods’, so the gods/people slaughtered.
Years later, the east is peppered by tightly packed cities close to the shore. The east is home and their home is dying, cursed to live under dark skies where little grows. The western expanse is called by any number of names but always, it’s unknown and firmly within supernatural terrain. Hereby, it’s Paradise and in Paradise, there’s the Dawn, its shape changing all the time: a sword, a wish, a goddess in white — its function is the same and that is the determination of sovereignty via claiming the supreme power, for the one with Dawn calls all the shots. The last holder is dead — Paradise is not paradisal — and our heroes find a piece of Dawnlight embedded under their skin.
The Plot, Plainly: Basically, what if an earthbound god had something to say about American manifest destiny? And what if in-fighting got that god killed? Their magic spread upon death and our heroes have a piece of it.
Setting: A weird American west, that is: lots of wilderness teeming with the supernatural.
Inspirations: Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue Deconnick & Emma Rios
The golden shore was dirtied to bronze by the fleets of colonists that came off the horizon. They settled the shore and expanded west, first slowly and then rapidly as the frontier was sliced up by opportunists thinking themselves the foremost victim. Westward they went, taking with them their smokestack slums, the shovels shifting to industrial drills, and feet-stamped paths hardening into the highway headed straight for the virgin heart. They went west. And they met this land’s makers. They woke them from centuries-long slumber, rousing the maker-gods from their warm beds in subterranean gorges. These gods weren’t theirs, or they weren’t of the gods’, so the gods/people slaughtered.
Years later, the east is peppered by tightly packed cities close to the shore. The east is home and their home is dying, cursed to live under dark skies where little grows. The western expanse is called by any number of names but always, it’s unknown and firmly within supernatural terrain. Hereby, it’s Paradise and in Paradise, there’s the Dawn, its shape changing all the time: a sword, a wish, a goddess in white — its function is the same and that is the determination of sovereignty via claiming the supreme power, for the one with Dawn calls all the shots. The last holder is dead — Paradise is not paradisal — and our heroes find a piece of Dawnlight embedded under their skin.
The Plot, Plainly: Basically, what if an earthbound god had something to say about American manifest destiny? And what if in-fighting got that god killed? Their magic spread upon death and our heroes have a piece of it.
Setting: A weird American west, that is: lots of wilderness teeming with the supernatural.
Inspirations: Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue Deconnick & Emma Rios
Sentinel x Guide (inspired by The Sentinel)
One of my favorite fan fiction tropes is essentially soulmates for the action die-hard. There isn’t a plot to accompany this because this is the sort of thing that can easily slot into a variety of genres and/or can complement a thin idea. Rather, the below is the gist of the trope:
Sentinels are humans that can enhance one or more of their senses to superhuman levels. Some sentinels can only enhance one sense while others have control over all five. Sentinels are naturally much more sensitive to sensory input than others, but when they key in on a specific sense they can zone out or get lost so completely in that sense that they effectively go into comas. Sometimes, this happens because they underestimate their abilities and go too far or this can happen on accident when say, they hear a very loud noise that they weren’t prepared for. Sentinels have a primal/animalistic quality and are highly territorial, being especially aggressive towards other sentinels. I’ve seen this concept go so far as to give sentinels a feral state, a state in which they’ve completely given into the primal and basically try to wreck anyone or anything they see as threatening what’s theirs. It’s also very common within fandom for sentinels of higher strengths to require adequate guides to avoid a debilitative state in which their senses constantly overwhelm them. In such cases, this state acts like a disease that slowly eats at their lucidity, slowly loosening their control over themselves until they’re comatose.
Guides have the most deviation as far as their treatment and abilities in fandom because in canon, they’re basically a one-liner and they’re posited as theoreticals at that. Throughout fandom, they’re empaths that have the ability to bring sentinels out of zone-outs. They can be paired with anyone, but every sentinel has one true guide and vice versa and while a sentinel may be compatible with multiple guides, their true guide is capable of bringing them back relatively quickly from the worst zone-outs. That’s their agreed upon role, but they’ve also been depicted as having a spiritual/occult connection and/or as telepaths in addition to being empaths.
A true match is capable of bonding and because it’s fandom, bonding normally = sex, but I’ve also seen less explicit bonding. Basically, the sentinel and guide imprint on one another and through that bond, they’re able to sense each other’s location, can communicate via emotion and in some iterations, are able to telepathically communicate with one another.
Lastly, the completely fannish additions to the trope that are sometimes, but not always present (but I think adds an extra bit of tension to the whole thing) are sentinels as a military branch and the addition of power dynamics or of an uneven societal relationship. In some universes, sentinels are required to join the military and in others, it’s just super common for them to because of the infrastructure and because they’re pushed so hard towards it. It’s also common for guides to be seen as weak commodities since so much of their skillset has to do with emotions. In such universes, they may be mistreated or forced into bad relationships in order to support strong sentinels.
This trope can be played with a lot, so if there are aspects you’d like to change or build upon then we can totes do that.
If you’d like to check out the fannish history of it, there’s a Fanlore article.
I have no preference for which I play in this pairing.
One of my favorite fan fiction tropes is essentially soulmates for the action die-hard. There isn’t a plot to accompany this because this is the sort of thing that can easily slot into a variety of genres and/or can complement a thin idea. Rather, the below is the gist of the trope:
Sentinels are humans that can enhance one or more of their senses to superhuman levels. Some sentinels can only enhance one sense while others have control over all five. Sentinels are naturally much more sensitive to sensory input than others, but when they key in on a specific sense they can zone out or get lost so completely in that sense that they effectively go into comas. Sometimes, this happens because they underestimate their abilities and go too far or this can happen on accident when say, they hear a very loud noise that they weren’t prepared for. Sentinels have a primal/animalistic quality and are highly territorial, being especially aggressive towards other sentinels. I’ve seen this concept go so far as to give sentinels a feral state, a state in which they’ve completely given into the primal and basically try to wreck anyone or anything they see as threatening what’s theirs. It’s also very common within fandom for sentinels of higher strengths to require adequate guides to avoid a debilitative state in which their senses constantly overwhelm them. In such cases, this state acts like a disease that slowly eats at their lucidity, slowly loosening their control over themselves until they’re comatose.
Guides have the most deviation as far as their treatment and abilities in fandom because in canon, they’re basically a one-liner and they’re posited as theoreticals at that. Throughout fandom, they’re empaths that have the ability to bring sentinels out of zone-outs. They can be paired with anyone, but every sentinel has one true guide and vice versa and while a sentinel may be compatible with multiple guides, their true guide is capable of bringing them back relatively quickly from the worst zone-outs. That’s their agreed upon role, but they’ve also been depicted as having a spiritual/occult connection and/or as telepaths in addition to being empaths.
A true match is capable of bonding and because it’s fandom, bonding normally = sex, but I’ve also seen less explicit bonding. Basically, the sentinel and guide imprint on one another and through that bond, they’re able to sense each other’s location, can communicate via emotion and in some iterations, are able to telepathically communicate with one another.
Lastly, the completely fannish additions to the trope that are sometimes, but not always present (but I think adds an extra bit of tension to the whole thing) are sentinels as a military branch and the addition of power dynamics or of an uneven societal relationship. In some universes, sentinels are required to join the military and in others, it’s just super common for them to because of the infrastructure and because they’re pushed so hard towards it. It’s also common for guides to be seen as weak commodities since so much of their skillset has to do with emotions. In such universes, they may be mistreated or forced into bad relationships in order to support strong sentinels.
This trope can be played with a lot, so if there are aspects you’d like to change or build upon then we can totes do that.
If you’d like to check out the fannish history of it, there’s a Fanlore article.
I have no preference for which I play in this pairing.
Bingo Stacks
For the adventurous, I have a list of prompts from several sources that I can feed into a bingo card maker. We can take a row or column from such a card and brainstorm something on the spot.
For the adventurous, I have a list of prompts from several sources that I can feed into a bingo card maker. We can take a row or column from such a card and brainstorm something on the spot.
Roulette
I have a folder of openers for games that never went anywhere, weren’t answered, or were written for kicks. If you like to live fast and loose, I can roll the die and send your number to you. If you have an opener you'd like to send me then I'm down for that too.
Terms:
I have a folder of openers for games that never went anywhere, weren’t answered, or were written for kicks. If you like to live fast and loose, I can roll the die and send your number to you. If you have an opener you'd like to send me then I'm down for that too.
Terms:
- Pairing must be MxM
- You must provide the following information:
- Genre vetoes and preferences
- Limits, including your comfort levels with sex and violence
- Your favorite or most desired thematic elements and/or narrative tones (for instance, power dynamics, adventure, lighthearted, dark, et c.)
- Your preferred writing medium (email, google docs, et c.)