Before requesting access, you are required to read the following:
Game rules may be subject to change.
Applications will not be accepted on a first come-first served basis. Please take some time and give some thought to your answers. Try to provide specific instead of generalised answers.
Please refrain from sending character ideas. I am only interested in gauging whether we would mesh well together as people and players.
SECTION I. PLAYER QUESTIONNAIRE
- Please provide your age and year of birth.
- What is your current time zone?
- What is your average posting rate?
- What is your first language, if not English?
- Why do you wish to join this game?
- What are your expectations for this game?
- What is your experience with gaming in general?
- What are the sorts of things do you enjoy? (In terms of games, books, movies, et cetera. I'm interested in hearing about anything, really.)
- What are taboo issues for you? (For example, some people are averse to games that depict drug usage in any way. Others feel uncomfortable with current political issues.)
- Please provide a writing sample. (I'm mostly looking for correct spelling, adherence to the rules of grammar, good diction, interesting ideas, and so forth.)
SECTION II. CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE
Think of this second questionnaire like a pitch. You are pitching your character for the game. Some characters may not fit with the game I'm trying to run. Or perhaps won't fit with the characters other players are running. My philosophy is that there needs to be a synergy between the players, GM, and the
characters so that we're all rooting for the same thing.
Which in my opinion, should be "a successful game".
Write a paragraph of text for a character, like you'd see in a story outline, describing the most essential elements of your character. What kind of arc do you envision for the character? What do you envision their story to be about? Try to capture what makes them unique as a character.
Compose your pitch in complete, grammatical sentences. No lists of abilities; no sentence fragments. It's okay to submit only one pitch, but would be better if you do more. Ideally, I would like to see three to five character pitches, after which I will pick the best one for a more in-depth focus. Each character pitch should be around 100 words long.
MEMORANDUM
Here are some answers to some questions you might have.
Who are the players supposed to be?
The protagonists are close friends, living in a fictional suburb called Middlepoint, Colorado, near Denver, where they attend Cherry Hill High School (or Middlepoint Middle School, if they're still in junior high school). They'll be playing one of the initial awakenings within their small town, of which there are about 168 (while reserving the right to change that exact number later on in the game).
You
will need a strong, compelling reason to allow an alien entity to inhabit your mind and soul and turn your life upside down. Perhaps you've taken pity on the refugees and want to help them in what way you can. Perhaps you like finding yourself part of something larger than yourself. Perhaps you're lonely and wouldn't mind talking to someone in your own head. Choose whatever makes sense for the character you wish to play.
Does this game take place on Earth?
Yes, and no.
You can expect things like smartphones and social media and complex political situations and so forth. But there's also aliens and weird technology and dimensions beyond our own comprehension. Some license must be taken so that these things haven't occurred in a vacuum, but influenced and affected each other prior to the game beginning, i.e., in the backstory.
What those things are, I can't really say with any specificity, because that's not how I create games. I usually come up with a premise and form the game's world around the players as they explore it. I might have a few underlying NPCs and world facts in my head, but that's about it, and those are easily discarded if I find something better to fit.
What kind of powers can I choose?
I enjoy games that explore themes of
coming of age and
the hero's journey. Part of the immersion of that sort of game is the unknowable nature of your powers or their origins.
Additionally, I want to manage the kinds of powers players have. I often find that you get far too an eclectic mixture that don't really make sense thematically when taken together.
But while I prefer to have my players not know what powers they're getting, I can understand why many players would not like that. If that's the case, this may not be the game for you.
A sort of compromise I can offer is if you let me know what sort of broad theme your powers might fall under. You might say, "Oh, I like flashy powers where you can't hide what's going on." That can apply to all sorts of things from fire manipulation to growth manipulation to a sonic scream. Or you might say, "I want my powers to relate to my character's quiet personality", or perhaps "I want my powers to relate to my character's interest in her favourite school subject."
I will work to accommodate any and all such requests. You may not get exactly what you want, but I find that things like powers are best negotiated in conversation and dialogue between the Game Master and the player. :)
Who or what are the quori?
Play and find out. :)
In all seriousness, they are extradimensional aliens that are difficult for the human mind to comprehend. They mainly interface with the players in dream and thought and might influence the player characters with their own alien thought patterns, causing the players to behave in weird and interesting ways. They're benevolent personalities, more often than not, but they are each individual, so one player's relationship to their quori might be different from another player's.
Part of the problem with stories about creatures like the quori is that you often get into the problem of consent. How much consent can a teenager really give if they don't fully understand the situation they're in, especially the implications of this interdimensional war? That's what we want to find out!
But to be clear, the quori
cannot control or force your character to do anything. They can only influence your actions in the way that anyone else might, through conversation and dialogue and so forth. They might pressure the characters into doing something, but that would put them clearly beyond the pale, and the quori need to be rather more compassionate than that.
How much inspiration does this game take from Animorphs?
Only the basic premise and not much of that, either. For example, yeerks don't give their hosts super powers. :)
But beyond that, I think the
themes of the Animorphs series would be interesting to explore. Things like horror, the loss of innocence, the burdens of leadership, dealing with an alien invasion while
also balancing a real life of going to school, having friends, whether the ends justify the means, et cetera. There's a lot to explore beyond the wacky premise.
However, if you're looking for clues to the shape of the story to come, you won't get very far.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:04, Mon 25 Mar 2019.
