Hey, everyone! My name is (not) CJ1145. I've been doing RPs for a while, and for the longest time I've had this idea. I wrote out the rules as a thought exercise some time ago. See, I kind of thought of what an RP based on Death Note would be like. It became immediately apparent that a loose RP, in the style of my previous attempts, would be futile at best. It would require structure. A set of rules to make it work properly.
Thus, I come to you with an experiment. I want to try and make this RP happen. I don't know how it will go. It may be groundbreaking, or it may crash and burn spectacularly. But it will be unorthodox, I believe. I will try and go over this as comprehensively as I can. But I lost the original draft of the rules, so I am going by memory. Bear with me.
Let's start off with the basic premise. You are all characters in Japan, in a small town, all with a fascination or interest in detective work, be it by profession or hobby, or simply a knack for it. But one of you is special; on a normal stroll, you came across a Death Note. You have adopted the name of Kira, and are now exacting your own brand of justice. The others must find who you are, and you must kill the others before they find you.
Character sheets are below, but DO NOT POST THESE. I will explain further down.
Once that is filled, you will not be posting it. You will send this version of the character sheet to me, in a private message. In the thread proper, you will post a re-formatted version of the sheet, looking like this.
This is to ensure no out of character knowledge impedes with the game.
Character sheets are below, but DO NOT POST THESE. I will explain further down.
NAME: (Your actual name)
ALIAS: (The name you will go by)
GENDER: (Obvious)
AGE: (Obvious)
APPEARANCE: (Be quite descriptive, please)
PERSONALITY: (Describe the innermost nature of your character. How do they think and process information? What are their loves, what do they despise? What do they think of other people, etc.
BIOGRAPHY: (From birth to present, what's your character been up to?)
MOTIVATION: (Possibly most important. WHY would your character become Kira? What motivations do they have to go on a killing spree? For the sake of simplicity, this is required. Every character involved must have a reason they'd be Kira, so I'm not restricted in selection.)
ALIAS: (The name you will go by)
GENDER: (Obvious)
AGE: (Obvious)
APPEARANCE: (Be quite descriptive, please)
PERSONALITY: (Describe the innermost nature of your character. How do they think and process information? What are their loves, what do they despise? What do they think of other people, etc.
BIOGRAPHY: (From birth to present, what's your character been up to?)
MOTIVATION: (Possibly most important. WHY would your character become Kira? What motivations do they have to go on a killing spree? For the sake of simplicity, this is required. Every character involved must have a reason they'd be Kira, so I'm not restricted in selection.)
Once that is filled, you will not be posting it. You will send this version of the character sheet to me, in a private message. In the thread proper, you will post a re-formatted version of the sheet, looking like this.
ALIAS: (No names given.)
GENDER: (Obvious)
AGE: (Obvious, may be faked if there is a sufficient lack of documentation; otherwise, don't be surprised if someone easily looks it up.)
APPEARANCE: (Difficult to hide)
PERSONALITY: (On the surface, who are you? Any masks or forced behaviors go here. Regardless of their true self, how do others perceive your character?)
BIOGRAPHY: (Only include here what would be commonly known or easily researched. Deep secrets or family-exclusive matters would likely not be known to the public.)
GENDER: (Obvious)
AGE: (Obvious, may be faked if there is a sufficient lack of documentation; otherwise, don't be surprised if someone easily looks it up.)
APPEARANCE: (Difficult to hide)
PERSONALITY: (On the surface, who are you? Any masks or forced behaviors go here. Regardless of their true self, how do others perceive your character?)
BIOGRAPHY: (Only include here what would be commonly known or easily researched. Deep secrets or family-exclusive matters would likely not be known to the public.)
This is to ensure no out of character knowledge impedes with the game.
When all of this is finished, I will look among the selections offered, and choose who I want to be in the RP proper.
When I have the characters I want selected, I will post the list in the thread. I will then look at each and determine which I want to be Kira. I may have specific, nuanced reasons or I may throw a dart at a board with all your names on it. Whoever I do select shall receive a PM explaining their "promotion".
When the game starts, it is assumed he's had the Death Note for at least a week, and has been using it.
The rest of you (and for added fun, Kira himself) shall be playing the roles of investigators. Be you genius-level high school students or a detective in the local police force, you've all been recruited to serve as a local task force, entrusted with the task of bringing down Kira. You must do this through investigation, and interaction. Learn about your fellow investigators any way you can, seek out clues wherever they may be found.
Kira's goal, naturally, is to wipe out all those on the force investigating him. He must be discreet, and keep his identity a secret while, at the same time, discovering the identities of those around him. Then, he must find a way to kill them without bringing the blame back to himself.
When the game starts, it is assumed he's had the Death Note for at least a week, and has been using it.
The rest of you (and for added fun, Kira himself) shall be playing the roles of investigators. Be you genius-level high school students or a detective in the local police force, you've all been recruited to serve as a local task force, entrusted with the task of bringing down Kira. You must do this through investigation, and interaction. Learn about your fellow investigators any way you can, seek out clues wherever they may be found.
Kira's goal, naturally, is to wipe out all those on the force investigating him. He must be discreet, and keep his identity a secret while, at the same time, discovering the identities of those around him. Then, he must find a way to kill them without bringing the blame back to himself.
It took me a long time to determine how, precisely, a player could make actions without giving away their status as an innocent or Kira. I think I've got a system worked out, though.
This game shall operate in hourly rounds. Each post a player makes describes all publicly viewable actions that they take. They will, in conjunction with this, send me a PM describing the actions of their character they wish to remain secret, such as breaking into a building to search for information, or writing a name on a slip of paper. Once I have everyone's secret actions, I will make a post of my own, detailing the results of players' public actions, and the actions of any NPCs around them. I will PM them back as well, explaining what occurred as a result of their private actions.
The big issue here is talking. How will that be handled? I cannot guarantee this will work, but the best system I have been able to come up with is, any public conversation visible by characters other than important NPCs or players will be viewable in the thread. Private conversations will take place over private messages (if you have a preferred medium such as an instant message service, that's fine, but I need to be privy to everything that goes on in the conversation, so whatever you do, send a PM explaining what was discussed.) Conversations with NPCs will be handled by PMing me. Anyone who for whatever reason is listening in on the conversation shall be messaged by me, explaining the details of the conversation.
I understand this is kind of clunky, but as I said this RP is more or less an experiment. Hopefully, if this works a more refined system can be worked out as we go.
This game shall operate in hourly rounds. Each post a player makes describes all publicly viewable actions that they take. They will, in conjunction with this, send me a PM describing the actions of their character they wish to remain secret, such as breaking into a building to search for information, or writing a name on a slip of paper. Once I have everyone's secret actions, I will make a post of my own, detailing the results of players' public actions, and the actions of any NPCs around them. I will PM them back as well, explaining what occurred as a result of their private actions.
The big issue here is talking. How will that be handled? I cannot guarantee this will work, but the best system I have been able to come up with is, any public conversation visible by characters other than important NPCs or players will be viewable in the thread. Private conversations will take place over private messages (if you have a preferred medium such as an instant message service, that's fine, but I need to be privy to everything that goes on in the conversation, so whatever you do, send a PM explaining what was discussed.) Conversations with NPCs will be handled by PMing me. Anyone who for whatever reason is listening in on the conversation shall be messaged by me, explaining the details of the conversation.
I understand this is kind of clunky, but as I said this RP is more or less an experiment. Hopefully, if this works a more refined system can be worked out as we go.
I do not think there is much more of importance to explain. Anything that occurs to me shall be added. Below is a sample sheet of what a character may look like, both in private and public form.
ALIAS: DJ Harmonia
GENDER: Male
AGE: 22
APPEARANCE: Is a gangly male, standing 5'8", of clear Japanese descent with light skin. His face is highly angular, but not well-structured. Appears rather dainty. Has a left mole under his right eye, both of which are a dark brown. His hair is dyed periwinkle and has a flock of seagulls style. Is missing his upper right incisor tooth. He tends to hunch over, just slightly, and is always dressed in a forest green blazer. He tends to wear blue jeans or sweatpants, and swaps out between a black and white t-shirt. Wears black combat boots on his feet, and usually has earbuds trailing down to an iPod in his back pocket.
PERSONALITY: Harmonia is very laid-back and non-confrontational. Something of a punk rocker in taste, but a hippie in spirit. He takes everyone at face value, encouraging self-expression and self-fulfillment. He has a distinct love for music, and enjoys sharing his tastes with others, and having friendly discussions about bands.
BIOGRAPHY: Born in Hawaii, Harmonia only moved to his parents' birthplace of Japan at the age of 17. He spent most of his formative years integrating into Hawaiian and American culture; yet, as he learned more and more of his homeland, he felt a simultaneous disconnection to both. He has drifted between many walks of life, all holding equal value to him. None are any more "him" than any others, and as he preached to his friends it only came down to what he chose to accept.
He was something of an aspiring musician, dropping out of school and picking up the electric guitar when he moved back to Japan. Though, he eventually gave it up in preference to synthesized music; he became a well-known DJ in his town, becoming a prominent radio personality and attending any nightclub in driving distance to play his music live. He had a smattering of "friends", but none were truly close to the DJ. He had few visible hobbies, though an oft-occurring scenario involved him coming onto the station under the influence of some substance, normally alcohol, and doing an impassioned, dramatic reading of a crime drama novel. Sometimes they were even in English and not Japanese. But the youth of his town, meta as they liked to consider themselves, loved his bizarre actions, and tuned in often in the hopes of hearing his famous readings. This saved him from the cutting board, and has allowed him to maintain a steady job, which he still works at to this day.
GENDER: Male
AGE: 22
APPEARANCE: Is a gangly male, standing 5'8", of clear Japanese descent with light skin. His face is highly angular, but not well-structured. Appears rather dainty. Has a left mole under his right eye, both of which are a dark brown. His hair is dyed periwinkle and has a flock of seagulls style. Is missing his upper right incisor tooth. He tends to hunch over, just slightly, and is always dressed in a forest green blazer. He tends to wear blue jeans or sweatpants, and swaps out between a black and white t-shirt. Wears black combat boots on his feet, and usually has earbuds trailing down to an iPod in his back pocket.
PERSONALITY: Harmonia is very laid-back and non-confrontational. Something of a punk rocker in taste, but a hippie in spirit. He takes everyone at face value, encouraging self-expression and self-fulfillment. He has a distinct love for music, and enjoys sharing his tastes with others, and having friendly discussions about bands.
BIOGRAPHY: Born in Hawaii, Harmonia only moved to his parents' birthplace of Japan at the age of 17. He spent most of his formative years integrating into Hawaiian and American culture; yet, as he learned more and more of his homeland, he felt a simultaneous disconnection to both. He has drifted between many walks of life, all holding equal value to him. None are any more "him" than any others, and as he preached to his friends it only came down to what he chose to accept.
He was something of an aspiring musician, dropping out of school and picking up the electric guitar when he moved back to Japan. Though, he eventually gave it up in preference to synthesized music; he became a well-known DJ in his town, becoming a prominent radio personality and attending any nightclub in driving distance to play his music live. He had a smattering of "friends", but none were truly close to the DJ. He had few visible hobbies, though an oft-occurring scenario involved him coming onto the station under the influence of some substance, normally alcohol, and doing an impassioned, dramatic reading of a crime drama novel. Sometimes they were even in English and not Japanese. But the youth of his town, meta as they liked to consider themselves, loved his bizarre actions, and tuned in often in the hopes of hearing his famous readings. This saved him from the cutting board, and has allowed him to maintain a steady job, which he still works at to this day.
NAME: Neko Haruhara
ALIAS: DJ Harmonia
AGE: 19
APPEARANCE: Is a gangly male, standing 5'8", of clear Japanese descent with light skin. His face is highly angular, but not well-structured. Appears rather dainty. Has a left mole under his right eye, both of which are a dark brown. His hair is dyed periwinkle and has a flock of seagulls style. Is missing his upper right incisor tooth. He tends to hunch over, just slightly, and is always dressed in a forest green blazer. He tends to wear blue jeans or sweatpants, and swaps out between a black and white t-shirt. Wears black combat boots on his feet, and usually has earbuds trailing down to an iPod in his back pocket.
PERSONALITY: Harmonia is very laid-back and non-confrontational. Something of a punk rocker in taste, but a hippie in spirit. He takes everyone at face value, encouraging self-expression and self-fulfillment. He has a distinct love for music, and enjoys sharing his tastes with others, and having friendly discussions about bands.
All of the above is true, but not the entire truth. Neko is something of a lover of drama. Crime novels, and old courtroom dramas are a guilty pleasure of his, and he has a veritable library of related reading in his home to complement this appreciation. Through his reading, he's discovered one type of person he cannot agree with. Those who would infringe upon others. He believes everyone should pursue their own happiness; seeing others' happiness denied? It infuriates him, to the point he desperately wishes he had some way to stop them. Instead, all he can do is watch his favorite shows, where the protagonists always get the perp.
BIOGRAPHY: Born in Hawaii, Harmonia only moved to his parents' birthplace of Japan at the age of 17. He spent most of his formative years integrating into Hawaiian and American culture; yet, as he learned more and more of his homeland, he felt a simultaneous disconnection to both. He has drifted between many walks of life, all holding equal value to him. None are any more "him" than any others, and as he preached to his friends it only came down to what he chose to accept. This is partially fueled by the apathetic nature of his own parents. Through his whole life, they were rather indifferent to anything he did, and just smiled and nodded towards any decision he made. It make Neko feel as if he was unable to bring structure to his life, or any meaning. It was all a formless entity that could shift and change with a mood.
He was something of an aspiring musician, dropping out of school and picking up the electric guitar when he moved back to Japan. A side effect of this was that he was able to lie about his age rather convincingly, as there were no school records to track down. He could be as old as he wanted to be. He eventually gave up the guitar in preference to synthesized music; he became a well-known DJ in his town, becoming a prominent radio personality and attending any nightclub in driving distance to play his music live. He had a smattering of "friends", but none were truly close to the DJ. He had few visible hobbies, though an oft-occurring scenario involved him coming onto the station under the influence of some substance, normally alcohol, and doing an impassioned, dramatic reading of a crime drama novel. These were taken from his private collection, and were his way of cutting loose. He had, for years, considered the possibility of working as a more political speaker, venting his frustrations and sharing his ideas. But it had always seemed like a silly dream to him; instead, he could come on here and say what he wished to say. Sometimes the readings were even in English and not Japanese. But the youth of his town, meta as they liked to consider themselves, loved his bizarre actions, and tuned in often in the hopes of hearing his famous readings. This saved him from the cutting board, and has allowed him to maintain a steady job, which he still works at to this day.
MOTIVATION: Neko strongly desires a way to destroy or defeat those who would deny others their paths, or their pursuits of happiness. A device capable of discreetly removing them from society would fit his desires perfectly; and in a way, it'd be like he was the heroic vigilante in one of his novels. A dream come true, really...
ALIAS: DJ Harmonia
AGE: 19
APPEARANCE: Is a gangly male, standing 5'8", of clear Japanese descent with light skin. His face is highly angular, but not well-structured. Appears rather dainty. Has a left mole under his right eye, both of which are a dark brown. His hair is dyed periwinkle and has a flock of seagulls style. Is missing his upper right incisor tooth. He tends to hunch over, just slightly, and is always dressed in a forest green blazer. He tends to wear blue jeans or sweatpants, and swaps out between a black and white t-shirt. Wears black combat boots on his feet, and usually has earbuds trailing down to an iPod in his back pocket.
PERSONALITY: Harmonia is very laid-back and non-confrontational. Something of a punk rocker in taste, but a hippie in spirit. He takes everyone at face value, encouraging self-expression and self-fulfillment. He has a distinct love for music, and enjoys sharing his tastes with others, and having friendly discussions about bands.
All of the above is true, but not the entire truth. Neko is something of a lover of drama. Crime novels, and old courtroom dramas are a guilty pleasure of his, and he has a veritable library of related reading in his home to complement this appreciation. Through his reading, he's discovered one type of person he cannot agree with. Those who would infringe upon others. He believes everyone should pursue their own happiness; seeing others' happiness denied? It infuriates him, to the point he desperately wishes he had some way to stop them. Instead, all he can do is watch his favorite shows, where the protagonists always get the perp.
BIOGRAPHY: Born in Hawaii, Harmonia only moved to his parents' birthplace of Japan at the age of 17. He spent most of his formative years integrating into Hawaiian and American culture; yet, as he learned more and more of his homeland, he felt a simultaneous disconnection to both. He has drifted between many walks of life, all holding equal value to him. None are any more "him" than any others, and as he preached to his friends it only came down to what he chose to accept. This is partially fueled by the apathetic nature of his own parents. Through his whole life, they were rather indifferent to anything he did, and just smiled and nodded towards any decision he made. It make Neko feel as if he was unable to bring structure to his life, or any meaning. It was all a formless entity that could shift and change with a mood.
He was something of an aspiring musician, dropping out of school and picking up the electric guitar when he moved back to Japan. A side effect of this was that he was able to lie about his age rather convincingly, as there were no school records to track down. He could be as old as he wanted to be. He eventually gave up the guitar in preference to synthesized music; he became a well-known DJ in his town, becoming a prominent radio personality and attending any nightclub in driving distance to play his music live. He had a smattering of "friends", but none were truly close to the DJ. He had few visible hobbies, though an oft-occurring scenario involved him coming onto the station under the influence of some substance, normally alcohol, and doing an impassioned, dramatic reading of a crime drama novel. These were taken from his private collection, and were his way of cutting loose. He had, for years, considered the possibility of working as a more political speaker, venting his frustrations and sharing his ideas. But it had always seemed like a silly dream to him; instead, he could come on here and say what he wished to say. Sometimes the readings were even in English and not Japanese. But the youth of his town, meta as they liked to consider themselves, loved his bizarre actions, and tuned in often in the hopes of hearing his famous readings. This saved him from the cutting board, and has allowed him to maintain a steady job, which he still works at to this day.
MOTIVATION: Neko strongly desires a way to destroy or defeat those who would deny others their paths, or their pursuits of happiness. A device capable of discreetly removing them from society would fit his desires perfectly; and in a way, it'd be like he was the heroic vigilante in one of his novels. A dream come true, really...
Phew. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This is still a work in progress, but feel free to submit a sheet if the idea interests you.
