Jacks

Hopefully. And yeah, that sounds reasonable enough.

I sent it to Spink, and as of last night the PM has been read.

Progress? No. Updates? Yes.As it turns out, I am dumb twice over. :PThe years in LGD got me so accustomed to seeking approval from the person whose name is listed at the top of the subforum that I sent the PM to Than the Moa, not realizing until just a few minutes ago that he doesn't approve RPGs here. I headdesk'd a little at my own lack of observance.So I've resubmitted it through the proper channels, and hopefully we'll only have to wait a few days at most.

...Well, this is awkward.The reason the LURPG is not up yet is as follows: Because we in this subforum have become such an isolated, self-sufficient community, until the last minute both Brikman and I...kind of forgot that RPGs need moderator approval. So that's what we're waiting on now. Sit tight, because it is coming.

Well, I'm finally back home, so if Brikman is ready, we will probably post the thread this weekend. I'll tentatively say Friday night, or thereabouts.Also, Canis, I also support this. I've always thought Ninjago would make a good RPG.

Like an intelligent Stromling? Yeah, those are pretty much canon for us. :PBy character cap, do you mean a maximum number of NPCs? If so, there's no maximum, but at the same time you should be careful not to create more than you can keep track of.

Well, both TC01 and PeaSam managed to eloquently express exactly how I feel on the subject of referencing other RPGs, whereas I barely managed to put it into words. :Psonyaxe, given that we would only use two ranks in the LURPG, neither of which would be based on equipment (how your character looks and what gear they use is much less significant in a text-based medium than a visual medium), you'd certainly be able to recreate him here. He would just be referred to as "Rank 1" (or whatever term we settle on) until promotion, regardless of his weaponry.I am currently away for the holidays, so internet access is infrequent and limited, but I will be back home around the second or third of January, and I think we'd be able to get the LURPG started then. Of course, I haven't heard from Brikman in a while, so he may be in the same sort of situation as I am.

Tahu and the Rahkshi are my favorites here -- the colour schemes on both are impeccably balanced, so neither hue seems more prominent than the other, and the layering of the colours works well also.I do have to say, though, that I love what you did with Nektann's feet.

OOC: Dang it, that guy, your speech was more eloquent than mine. I have feels now. I hope we can collaborate again some time in the future. (And as for your spelling, it was consistent enough that we never had to guess what you meant. Honestly, I stopped noticing it after the first couple months )And it's true, now that you point it out, that avmatoran is probably among the most dedicated players this RPG has had. Kudos, my friend.

OOC: </ENDQUOTE>Sounds good to me. I looked up a couple clips and I have no objections. ------------------------ Well...this is it. Once again, I'm sorry to have been the one to keep you all waiting.These past seven years have been fantastic, and it has been a pleasure and an honor to be along for the ride. I have composed a sort of farewell speech, spoiler'd so that future readers need not scroll past it, but I'd at least skim through it if I were you. What follows is my final IC in the Dino Attack Text-Based Role-Playing Game. It's been fun, guys. It's been real fun.IC: 22 April 2011David O'Neal got off the bus and walked. It was the first time since December that he'd been without a wheelchair, crutch, or other support.The bus stop was two blocks from the apartment, but a slight detour and a stop at the city bank turned it into three and a half. Passersby glanced at his curved metal shin in surprise, but he paid them no mind. Arriving at the building -- a four-story brick affair -- he struggled up the stairs to the second floor and unlocked the door.Bart and April Helmutson had generously offered Dave a place to stay until he could find a home of his own. While he was certainly grateful, it was positively unnerving to see photographs of Tracer -- no, Jason -- at earlier ages distributed from room to room. April had initially insisted upon allowing Dave to occupy Jason's old room, but it had turned out to be rather unpleasant. Jason had started appearing in his dreams -- nervous, happy and laughing, or dying on a cot. Then one night, Dave was back in the bombed-out DAHQ, held captive by O'Cozy's realists, and when Tracer slipped over and freed him, Dave turned to see the kid riddled with bulletholes, eyes wide and lifeless, mouth twisted open in a silent scream. He'd awoken in a cold sweat, and had slept on the couch ever since.April was pulling on her jacket when Dave walked in. "Morning!" she called out cheerily. "The final appointment went well, then?"Dave nodded. "All clear." And that means it's time to go."Fantastic," April said. "Oh, you have some mail." She handed him an envelope and he looked it over. From Hertz -- another invitation to return to...whatever it was DA was calling itself now. Perhaps Hertz could deal with the past year's experiences by building something positive out of them, but for Dave, that was rather out of the question. He just wanted to put all of 2010 behind him for good, if that was possible."Well, I'm off to the memorial. See you later," April said, stepping out into the corridor and pulling the door shut behind her.The memorial was another thing Dave wanted to avoid. He'd no desire to see the names of his friends on a block of stone. The names of Sarah O'Neal, Swerve, Tracer, Rex, and more were already etched in his mind. And then there were the others -- Kotua, Databoard, Blade, Fullmetal...he'd no idea whether they had survived, nor any desire to find out if they hadn't. Try as he might to stop it, the Dino Attack still continued to work its way back into his life -- just a few days ago there'd been that paragraph in the newspaper; B and his squad had been found dead in the ruins of a bandit camp. And then there was Hertz's hopeful barrage of mail. Dave liked Hertz, honest to Builder, but his own sentiments towards the Dino Attack were difficult to put into words.He tossed the envelope onto the table unopened, then dug into his satchel and pulled out the wads of cash he'd withdrawn from the bank -- compensation for his services on the Dino Attack Team, plus the meagre sum he'd earned over the past three months doing inventory work in a nearby bookstore (he had to take some amusement from that. A degree in electrical engineering and he couldn't even so much as get a job in a hardware store). Counting out a portion of the money, he pinned it to a sheet of paper and jotted down a note of gratitude and explanation -- Bart and April had insisted that it wasn't necessary for him to chip in and pay some of the rent, but he couldn't help but feel like a freeloader.Dave left the rent money on the table. April would likely stay at the memorial for hours, and Bart worked all day down at the harbour, so by the time they found it, he'd be long gone. The rest of the money he slipped into a hidden pocket inside his satchel.He showered quickly before packing, musing as he did so. 2010 was not devoid of redeeming qualities. He was all but guaranteed a job with Alpha Team or the ADO, should he ever decide that life in a quasi-military organization was for him -- right now, the answer was "no," but if the world came under attack by a force of brutal malevolence again, well, you never know -- and he'd found friends, both old and new, and some in quite high places, on whom he knew he could depend if he needed it. Zach, Andrew, Dr. Cyborg, Reptile, Hertz, Wright, Shiller...And Kat. That was another matter entirely. True to her word, she'd sent him telegrams -- letters written as though they were telegrams, that is; her humour certainly hadn't changed -- for the first few weeks after her departure. But the last one had been months ago.That was why Dave was leaving now.He shut the water off, dried himself off, dressed, and walked back out to the couch, where he gathered his few belongings and tucked them into his satchel -- a few changes of clothes, toothbrush and soap, an extra prosthetic and collapsible crutch just in case, and a few electrician's tools. Then he pulled the bag over his right shoulder and walked out.Author's note: It's a fairly large satchel. Just go with it.------------------------A fifteen-minute bus ride brought Dave to LEGO City's central train station. He was headed for the doors when a voice stopped him."Just where do you think you're going, Dave?"He turned, and there, leaning against the wall, was Lucy Wright. "Away," he replied solemnly.Lucy crossed the sidewalk and nudged him in the shoulder. "Cmon, you gotta give us more details than that.""Yeah, we didn't follow you here just to let you slip past us with a few cryptic words," said a second voice. Dave spun around to see Ben Shiller leaning out the window of the old station wagon he'd taken no notice of just moments before. "Besides, we'd already figured out you were going 'away'." He gestured to the back of the car, which Dave now saw contained several suitcases and sleeping bags."Wait, back up," Dave said. "You followed me? How?""We hadn't heard anything from you in almost a month, and it was getting a bit worrying," said Wright. "So we looked up your friend, Agent Mort.""And we got him to sniff some proverbial paper trails, off the books," Shiller continued. "That's how we found out you'd quit your job and reserved a train ticket for the same day you'd be finished with your physical therapy. It didn't take much to put two and two together.""Okay, but...well...I couldn't ask you to drop your lives and come with me.""You were willing to do that for Kat when she left, though," Wright pointed out. "And you were stuck in a wheelchair then.""We couldn't do anything less and still call ourselves your friends, O'Neal," said Shiller. "And this is about Kat, isn't it?"Dave nodded. "I haven't heard from her since the end of January. Before then I was getting a postcard a week. Not sure what happened, but if she's still out there I'd like to catch up.""Well, I know you care a lot about her, even if it's in a way we can't exactly understand," said Wright, circling the car and getting in the driver's seat. "Hop in. None of us are getting any younger." It didn't take much deliberation for Dave to make his decision. He pulled open the door, tossed his bag onto the back seat, and followed it in. "So, where are we headed?" Wright asked, starting the engine."Her last letter came from World City," said Dave. "I thought I'd start there, but if there are no leads? Well, who knows."Shiller laughed. "World City or bust, then. Subsequent stops: everywhere." He looked back and shot Dave a smirk. "Just like summer '04 all over again, eh?""Just like summer '04," Dave agreed with a grin.And five minutes later, they were pulling onto the highway, with the past in their wake, and nothing but the future ahead of them.

OOC: And Slartibartfast in Hitchhiker's Guide

OOC: While I'm sure Liam Neeson is skilled enough to play two roles, what about Bill Nighy? I think he'd be a good Zapper.Also, that guy, I'm still not particularly satisfied with your pick for Mort. I think maybe it would be best to just take him off the list entirely until I can come up with someone else.Finally, I intend to spend the rest of the day on my final post, which will hopefully be up tonight. Probably very late tonight.

avmatoran- While I still hold to the position that "all Lego text-based RPGs take place in the same universe unless otherwise noted," I believe Brikman just listed Zach there as an example profile. We mentioned this once while brainstorming, and we'll both have brand new PCs.With that said, I might suggest avoiding overt references to other RPGs. Subtle references, yes; imported characters, sure, but directly mentioning groups or events tied specifically to another RPG...I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. Granted, allowing such references did gain the DARPG most of its early players, so it can't be all bad...Short answer, feel free to bring in Dr. Cyborg and UITech, since they aren't tied to any one game. As for XERRD...well, I'll get back to you on that once I've thought it over.sonyaxe- Like Brikman said, just because this starts out like a text-based version of the MMO doesn't mean it will stay that way. We have twists and betrayals aplenty up our sleeves -- it's just that it doesn't pay to give them away before the playing field is set. :)Regarding your own plan, I don't much like the idea of making half of Nexus Force evil. Especially since Venture is my favorite faction. Other than that it doesn't seem particularly problematic.So I think, with maybe a week's worth at the most of last-minute adjustments, Brikman and I could probably have our game up and running by the end of the year. I guess it'll just come down to whether the consensus favors our idea or sonyaxe's.

Well, since we've now got one more thinking about an LURPG, I'll go ahead and submit what Brikman and I have so far. Spoiler'd due to potentially inconvenient length, here is what would be the first post in the thread. Regarding the Ninjago planet being off-limits, we figured that since Ninjago would be fantastic RPG fodder on its own, it would be best to avoid overlap.

OOC: Oh, I think we've had a bit of a misunderstanding. Mort's not particularly badman at all -- at least, not in that sense. I'm not sure where the notion that he is fit and muscled came from; he's pale and limping -- not exactly slight, but certainly not big. He may speak and act a bit like Sherlock, but in terms of physique, he's a bit more like Grima Wormtongue.

OOC: What are their heights?

OOC: I know him mainly as Arthur Dent in the 2005 version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and as Watson in BBC's Sherlock. Both those roles have their share of Race-like qualities. He might be a bit old for the role (and I've only ever seen him in Das Boot), but I think Prochnow would be a great Cane.EDIT: The heck is wrong with the BBCode? First it doesn't work, then it starts spawning random quote tags that I didn't write.

OOC: I hadn't even thought of Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man...I guess I can see the sciencey thing going on there. I think the distinction, then, is mainly that I can easily imagine a character of Gordon-Levitt's caliber building a successful technological corporation from scratch. Not quite so much the case with Robert Downey Jr.I'll admit, I've only ever seen JGL in Inception, so I'm not very familiar with his work either. Judging from that one film, though, he just seems to be the right type of person to play Dr. Cyborg.Helm...well, Helm's basically Captain Haddock from the Tintin books, except with a family instead of raging alcoholism. And I think John Rhys-Davies would fit into the 'big strapping sailor' mold just fine. I have no objections.Martin Freeman could perhaps fit the part of Sam Race.And we've seen Matt Smith's Doctor get all dark and angry plenty of times...just imagine that as his base mood, and with no regard for any life but his own...yeah, he could play Loop.

OOC: I've got enough of a reprieve of respond to this updated list.First off, good picks for Wright, Shiller, Winston, and Swerve -- no objections there. Mind blown upon realizing that Elijah Wood was hardly any older when LOTR was filmed than I am now. Now, I know you said you weren't thinking about appearance that much, but I have a hunch that you consulted my sketch of Hotwire at least once; unfortunately, I am not good at drawing faces. Both the actors you suggested for Hotwire are a bit too square-jawed, as is my sketch. However, if I might shuffle your list a bit, Andrew Garfield would actually be a really good fit for Tracer, and now that I think of it, Tom Felton would make a decent Hotwire. I'm still uncertain about Scarlet Johanson. I pondered a bit and I think Tilda Swinton would work better in the role of Kat. I do think Tom Felton would have made a decent Loop, but I'm actually going to say Matt Smith. He can be pretty dang scary, and he has a large enough forehead that a third eye could fit in very easily. I haven't any idea about Helm, though. And that also leaves Osprey and Mort.And Josh Hutcherson would be one year older than Zach, not younger.Also, avmatoran, I'm not sure about Robert Downey Jr. He tends to play rather egotistical characters, and though Dr. Cyborg does have a bit of a flair for the dramatic, I always read him as someone who was really just in it for the science. Plus I just think Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perfect for the part.

OOC: So it looks like I'm probably going to be the one you're all waiting on.I did say I'd post over Thanksgiving, but frankly, it's just not been possible. To be honest, I've been pretty much completely burnt out for the past month, and it's only gotten worse in the past couple of weeks. I'm actually posting this without even having read that guy's conclusion; it's already near-impossible for me to stay on top of my classwork, much less this thread. I dunno if any of you folks have ever had the experience of being so stressed, depressed, and sleep-deprived that you feel physically ill, but if you haven't, please don't. It's not a good time.I have three weeks left in the semester. I can say with some certainty that I won't be able to complete my last post until that time is over, and I may well require several days afterwards just to recover my bearings. I do apologize for suddenly going all serious, and once again I'm really very sorry for holding up the ending like this. Rest assured, though, I will be back to conclude my story. I just can't say when for sure that will be.

I suppose this would be a good time to mention that I have restarted work on the Lego Universe RPG along with Brikman McStudz. We're both quite busy IRL at present, but we'll hopefully have something up here for public review in December or thereabouts.

OOC: Mmm, not really. You're overstating his influence in 2001. Yes, he was consulted for realism, but as I've mentioned before, the realism is not what makes 2001 an amazing film. Clarke was not a right-hand man, but rather Kubrick's unknowing lackey; he basically wrote the novel based on mere glimpses of the parts of the screenplay that Kubrick allowed him to see, thereby creating a work of pure sci-fi to distract everyone from the rest of the narratives Kubrick placed in the film. When you really delve into it, the novel and the film are essentially separate.I have already read the novels you recommend, and more. Rendezvous with Rama is the very quintessence of my earlier argument -- that Clarke simply could not craft character-driven stories. The 'plot' was simply a sequence of events relating to Rama itself. Yes, it was an incredible world that he created, but was it necessary to write an entire novel just to show it off? The same effect could be achieved simply by drawing blueprints and composing technical notes. In any case, for that reason -- in addition to at least one passage that I found painfully sexist -- I have no desire to read Rendezvous again, as interesting as the world of Rama was. And desire to re-read is one of my primary criteria for a good book.Incidentally, here is the source for my information on 2001. The stuff about Clarke starts around part 9, if I recall correctly, but I highly recommend you read the entire thing if you;ve got the time, because it's really really fascinating.EDIT: Actually, the explanation of Clarke's involvement comes at the very beginning. My bad.Also, good call, TC01. Had I thought of that I would have started a COT thread myself.

OOC: I might have to disagree; while he is certainly an epitome of hard sci-fi in particular, I definitely would not call him an "ultimate role model." His plots tended to be rather weak; almost every single one was artifact-driven rather than character-driven. In the sole exception that I know of, A Fall of Moondust, every single character was just an archetype, so while the story was gripping, there was nothing innovative about it.Let no mistake be made: it was Kubrick, not Clarke, who was responsible for the magnificence of 2001.Asimov, on the other hand, I cannot recommend highly enough. Granted, he sometimes strays into softer sci-fi -- I'd say he's the midpoint between Clarke and Bradbury -- but his plots and characters are, in my opinion, superior to Clarke's.