Semi-realistic African Savannah Roleplay?
I've been thinking for a long while about starting an Africa themed roleplay. I've played various places but have always been dissapointed in the treatment of hoofstock or non-mega-predator characters. Zebras have no herd because there are never more than two or three zebras active. No one respects the danger inherant inthe hippotragini because they've never heard of them before. The only relationship between predator and prey species are predator prey interactions, or lion-raising/defending-oryx interactions. Birds are relegated to someone else's sidekick or majordomo. There aren't enough characters of any single species to form family connections, feuds, history, relationships. Endless Round was a bit better, since there was a large percentage of non-lions, but still faced the same problems of never seeing an individual more than once or twice. I had to quit them after not having enough time to commit to playing Rafiki there as much as was necesary for the storyline, but I gather they've dissembled anyway.
Anyone know of any good ones that exist? I've had a very hard time finding non-lion centric ones.
If not, I'd like to form my own eventually. Not a time-intensive one, but a message-board style one with some plotting ahead and relaible enough posting that people get to know each other's characters and know they'll show up for more than one session and never be seen again. I was thinking a realistic type- no jewels, unnatural colors (real but rare patterns are cool, I can always offer suggestions for those sorts of char designs), acessories; realistic relative lifespans (creates interested inter-species dynamics there). A large, central zebra/wildebeest/gazelle herd (no upward limit) with a single breeding male per species. A small pride of lions (5ish), a small pack of hyenas (3-4). Birds, reptiles, etc all welcome, but should follow natural behavior. Perhaps a troop of baboons (for some reason I've never seen these get even as much support as the zebras get). Small bands of the hoofstock that form family groups, could be multiple of these. A band of elephants, if there's any interest (this would be awesome, since they outlive everyone except perhaps tortoises and birds). Some bachelor herds of zebras, others that form bachelor herds. For the sake of simplicity I'm thinking perhaps each small unit (pride, bachelor herd) could be split between two or three players, so there's group interactions without having to wait for multiple people to reply, especially if everyone but one pivitol player is online at once. That would also allow someone to bring in another character without having to contact their player and wait for a response. Depends on how many people there are and how active they are. The level of realism (beyond aesthetic) is something we could play with- they talk, obviously, and have inter-species interactions. We could have religion (built off the pantheon I started? It's variable from species to species by nature, nothing is set in stone), politics, plotting with other species (enisting the lions to overthrow a herd leader, allowing you to take his place, in return for helping them set up an ambush?) I'm highly hesitant about healers and other spiritual characters, but anything you find in the wild (lemurs using centipedes as tick-pesticide, some animals eating, uh, fermented fruit and getting tipsy? Absolutly!) No human contact. (No zoo escapees!) The habitat could obviously also be spread to areas other than the savannah (forest, jungle, deasert) depending on what species people would like to pick up; or they could be bbrought in to range with a good backstory (herd of forest antelope came in-land for water during a drought, stay on the fringes of the savanah since it's the closest reliable source of water). If any person finds themself being the only one playing characters of a social species, we can adjust around that so you don't have to give up the species just because there's no one playing opposite you. If there isn't enough active support for the huge multi-groups, we can focus on a larger group of a single species (a few small herds, or a large one and a few splinter/bachelor herds) or close congregation of species (the gazelle/wildebeest/zebra herd, nyala/baboon groups, anything that hang out together) Yeah, this is all off the top of my head, sorry if it doesn't make sense.
Suggestions? Support? Let me know if you don't think that you have time to post right now but maybe would join up later? No time commitment necesary, it would be nice if you let the people you were RPing with know you have exams in two weeks and need to wrap up a storyline soon, but it wouldn't be the kind of thing where you're kicked off for being inactive. If you know you'll have two weeks free between semesters and want to do something then I'm sure we could find something. This would be built around many busy people, I want ideas on how to maximize convenience for people's schedules. The point of this would be fun in your offtime, not stress to find the time to reply all the time.
But yeah, and response/feedback to this idea at all would be great. It's still in the brainstorm/is it worth it to even look into stages. Or if one similair already exists, it'd save me a lot of work, so point me in that direction. *L*
Anyone know of any good ones that exist? I've had a very hard time finding non-lion centric ones.
If not, I'd like to form my own eventually. Not a time-intensive one, but a message-board style one with some plotting ahead and relaible enough posting that people get to know each other's characters and know they'll show up for more than one session and never be seen again. I was thinking a realistic type- no jewels, unnatural colors (real but rare patterns are cool, I can always offer suggestions for those sorts of char designs), acessories; realistic relative lifespans (creates interested inter-species dynamics there). A large, central zebra/wildebeest/gazelle herd (no upward limit) with a single breeding male per species. A small pride of lions (5ish), a small pack of hyenas (3-4). Birds, reptiles, etc all welcome, but should follow natural behavior. Perhaps a troop of baboons (for some reason I've never seen these get even as much support as the zebras get). Small bands of the hoofstock that form family groups, could be multiple of these. A band of elephants, if there's any interest (this would be awesome, since they outlive everyone except perhaps tortoises and birds). Some bachelor herds of zebras, others that form bachelor herds. For the sake of simplicity I'm thinking perhaps each small unit (pride, bachelor herd) could be split between two or three players, so there's group interactions without having to wait for multiple people to reply, especially if everyone but one pivitol player is online at once. That would also allow someone to bring in another character without having to contact their player and wait for a response. Depends on how many people there are and how active they are. The level of realism (beyond aesthetic) is something we could play with- they talk, obviously, and have inter-species interactions. We could have religion (built off the pantheon I started? It's variable from species to species by nature, nothing is set in stone), politics, plotting with other species (enisting the lions to overthrow a herd leader, allowing you to take his place, in return for helping them set up an ambush?) I'm highly hesitant about healers and other spiritual characters, but anything you find in the wild (lemurs using centipedes as tick-pesticide, some animals eating, uh, fermented fruit and getting tipsy? Absolutly!) No human contact. (No zoo escapees!) The habitat could obviously also be spread to areas other than the savannah (forest, jungle, deasert) depending on what species people would like to pick up; or they could be bbrought in to range with a good backstory (herd of forest antelope came in-land for water during a drought, stay on the fringes of the savanah since it's the closest reliable source of water). If any person finds themself being the only one playing characters of a social species, we can adjust around that so you don't have to give up the species just because there's no one playing opposite you. If there isn't enough active support for the huge multi-groups, we can focus on a larger group of a single species (a few small herds, or a large one and a few splinter/bachelor herds) or close congregation of species (the gazelle/wildebeest/zebra herd, nyala/baboon groups, anything that hang out together) Yeah, this is all off the top of my head, sorry if it doesn't make sense.
Suggestions? Support? Let me know if you don't think that you have time to post right now but maybe would join up later? No time commitment necesary, it would be nice if you let the people you were RPing with know you have exams in two weeks and need to wrap up a storyline soon, but it wouldn't be the kind of thing where you're kicked off for being inactive. If you know you'll have two weeks free between semesters and want to do something then I'm sure we could find something. This would be built around many busy people, I want ideas on how to maximize convenience for people's schedules. The point of this would be fun in your offtime, not stress to find the time to reply all the time.
But yeah, and response/feedback to this idea at all would be great. It's still in the brainstorm/is it worth it to even look into stages. Or if one similair already exists, it'd save me a lot of work, so point me in that direction. *L*