This is the discussion for the world famous BZPStuck!
What is BZPStuck?
It's essentially a play on those old text-based RPGs where you would type in actions for your character. You would type in something like, Walk towards the Door or Pick Up That Object and the character would do so and report anything that happened. This is a pseudo comic and game hybrid that has that same basic layout to it. Members tell the characters what to do, and they do it, and that helps develop and drive forward the story of the comic. As for the actual contents of the comic, see below:
(may contain minor spoilers)
A story about eight friends, joined together by a love for creation and a duty to protect the young and the weak.
A story about what it means to truly create unity through dischord, to find commonality even when differences make it seem impossible.
A story about making choices, about choosing to do things even though they are hard, about doing them because you know in the end it is right.
BZPStuck is an exploration of the model set forth by Andrew Hussie, famed author of the website MSPaint Adventures. It borrows themes and motifs from his comic as an homage and also as a chance to adapt them into a new framework. It's initial conceit, that of friends connected through the internet that find their digital life becoming a literal escape is the main thrust of the comic. These friends all live in a somewhat surreal world that seems inundated with videogame mechanics A nod to the fact that the story is advanced by real people playing these characters and telling them what to do. In conflicts they literally battle their friends and family. They equip weapons and items and have a strange, bottomless and sometimes frustrating inventory system. Their personality is dictated by numerical attributes. Such is life for these friends in a world that seems to be more virtual than reality.
Then everything changes.
A powerful toy company called Lego selects these eight friends as testers for a newly developed videogame. A game that somehow interacts with the real world to allow them to manipulate each other's home environment. Moving treasured posessions, building new structures, and causing mayhem everywhere. More shockingly, it seems this game has the power to send these friends into a new world, and in fact, threatens their very life if they choose not to.
There is only one guide in this powerful game for the players When it is first started, an unrealized being sprouts that has the potential to take any form the player chooses. Little do they players know that whatever they use to shape this guide, will also shape the forces they will face later on within the game itself.
As they build more and gain experience in this strange land, they are equipped with machinery that allows them to use their own imaginations to build strange and incredible creations. They can use all the elements found around them to combine, duplicate, and remove attributes from items. A teddy bear combined with a computer suddenly becomes a usable teddy top. A robotic device and a cake mix suddenly find themselves entertwined and utterly delicious. The only limit is the imagination...and the amount of pieces found lying around.
Once these people finally make the decision to enter the new world, they are faced with many incredible challenges and find there are some powerful forces at work behind the scenes, and many of them are not friendly. Foes abound in this world, bent on stopping these friends from their work, even when these eight people are unsure what their ultimate goal even is. They find themselves stopped at every turn by strange monsters and creatures that all seem to follow some greater guiding power, but in the end they find the power within themselves to overcome.
OR DO THEY???
So this is a game?
It's a comic, and a game. You, the player, can give commands to the "players" of this little virtual world, and they have to follow them to the letter. That said, not all commands may be picked and not all commands shown may be real - sometimes we have to advance the plot of our own accord after all!
What are the rules?
Simple! This topic is used for all discussion, and can also be used for commands. Commands should look like this:
[Player Name]: Do action
Any command submitted not following this format will be ignored because it shows you DIDN'T read the rules!
It is also preferred that any 'command' submitted in a post be accompanied by other content. Additionally, you should limit yourself to one command a day or per update, whichever is sooner. We are trying to avoid overspamming, so please please PLEASE try to keep this to a minimum or we will have to take it to PM and then it's no fun for anyone.
So why is this in GD?
Well, for a couple reasons. This comic involves several staff members contributing, including at least one admin, and is intended as a way to associate with the members on a closer basis, create a closer community, and let everyone have a little fun together. Some of the older members may remember the "Staff RPG" where staff members had a mock-survival game going on in GD. This is in much the same spirit.
Yeah, so this is basically identical to this other comic...
Yeah kind of.
So wait you're seriously just going to copy Andrew Hussie
Well...yeah.
I guess...at least you're honest about it?
Thank you. But seriously this is intended as a direct homage to his work. He is a brilliant man and although we at BZP can not recommend members reading his comic because of some content, those who do already should appreciate how our work is both similiar and different.
That said, the story is NOT what you're expecting exactly. There aren't just cosmetic changes at work here; the very nature of this game is MUCH different.
So who are the actual "players"?
Hehe wouldn't YOU like to know! Just kidding, there are eight players, six staff members and two non-staff but who we're sure you'll all grow to love as your own. In addition, other staff members will be playing a part in this comic, both large and small. Also, every member can and will have impact on the story as it goes forward since you decide what happens.
Can we actually impact the story?
Yes! You decide everything that will happen! Now, not all commands may come from the users, sometimes there are other forms of input we take into account, such as discussions online, demands of the story, and input from "mysterious sources". Also, any command that would result in the death or dismemberment of a player will be either mocked or ignored. Not to say these characters can't come to any harm, but if they do it will be up to us.
And how often will you update?
As often as possible, with the goal that there will be new content at least once every other day.
More questions will be added as needed, but for now, let's get started. Remember to READ THE RULES before you post and try to keep the spam to a minimum. We love input, but more than one command a day is really not needed. There's no possible way we can get to them all anyway, so limiting them gives everyone a more equal chance at participating. In fact, being considerate and just posting once per update will probably make staff more likely to pick your commands in the first place. This isn't a hard rule, just how we think!
Edited by Tufi Piyufi, Apr 15 2013 - 11:17 PM.
