Heapers' Hangout Idea Repository
I know a lot of us here (myself included) have a tendency to think up characters/concepts/settings/plots/etc. and then never do anything with them. This is a dumping ground for such ideas, regardless of their usefulness.
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Sometimes when I am bored, I speculate on what kind of rap career I'd have if I was actually talented enough to have one.
I've decided that I would jam-pack my verses with references, and build up a variety of personas a la Tyler the Creator.
in other news.
I frequently speculate about "minimal magic" settings, ones where magic is present, but not very powerful. Making even something as ordinarily common in such works as throwing a fireball to be incredibly taxing.
While there wouldn't be much conflict between them, you could build on their friendship as a form of character development.
necroing cuz I'm writing a thing now. Inspired by a number of things, but primarily standard superhero comics, I got a vague spark of inspiration from Rushdie's Midnight's Children, but the two works have almost nothing in common.
also a common term, IWAT, basically the technospeak term for "superhuman" in this continuity.
Skullboy Comics Universe
cut the boring part.
any thoughts?
I also want to include another human and another dragon in this team (both female for future reference), but I haven't given much thought to their personalities or any unique abilities yet. But anyhow, does this sound like a reasonable group of main characters?
The chain is also well known around Greyson thanks to its iconic ad campaign that subverts the expectations found in most advertising mascots.
Bobbi is an anthropomorphized blue ice cream cup. She's a sweet young lady and doesn't try to offend most of the time. Despite her nice nature, audiences tend not to respond as well to her as much as other mascots of her type, mostly because shortly after her introduction she was upstaged by her male counterpart.
Clarence is Bobbi's boyfriend, a green coffee cup, and he's got massive issues. He's a borderline psychotic, caffeine-addicted, often antisocial, sarcastic mug with a long-term plan to take over Earth-- but he's an amazing pitchman and knows exactly how to sell coffee to the Greyson City public. He's also, strangely enough, very kind toward his girlfriend and doesn't seem to mind customers at the B+C most of the time.
Because Clarence doesn't have the clearance (hehe) to carry out his world domination plans, he hangs out with Bobbi at their local B+C and entertains himself by harassing rude customers and watching TV all day.
The popularity of the ad campaign helped the B+C grow into a 10-location chain around Greyson, and a healthy source of their income comes from real-life versions of Clarence and Bobbi sold in stores.
[stuckiverse]
Tre: Heh. Sounds like an interesting set of mascots.
I like the amount of detail you put into all the different restaurants around the city. I know it's partly because that's where most of the action takes place, but still, that makes it a bit easier to make a mental picture of the setting.
Jake is 17 and probably will stop aging sometime as soon as he gets "old enough". Technically he's actually like 500 years old, but he's had a few scuffles that made him, for lack of a better word, regenerate.
It's similar to the regenerations you might've seen in Dr. Who, where after the Doctor gets on the verge of death, he turns into a new person with a new look and demeanor. The vampires don't do it exactly like that, though -- while the Doctor regenerates into a fully grown man, they turn back into babies. Weird, yes, but I had to find a way to make a 17-year-old adopted vampire fit in somewhat with his family without being 17 the whole time.
Likewise, I also changed a few other things.
Vampires can burn in sunlight if they're out too long; the most they can take's about two hours. (This is why Jake usually carries an umbrella around even in Greyson's hot and dry summers.)
They can eat human food, but it isn't as pleasant to the vampiric palate as blood is, be it human or animal. (Usually a telling sign of a vampire is if you see someone walking out of a grocery store with a red butcher's bag.)
They don't sparkle. Oh hell no.
As a bit of a joke, they all can do perfect Transylvanian accents, even the ones that aren't even remotely Transylvanian, like Jake.
Garlic is delicious to them, actually, and crosses won't do much to them unless you beat them on top of the head with one. Wooden stakes are still deadly though.
They generally age normally until their very, very late teens, at which point they stop until a regeneration is required.
You can be turned by either getting bitten (without dying from blood loss, of course) or by drinking an active vampire's blood.
They're not immortal, but they literally live so long that it's a relative moot point.
One category of related things they were pretty good at in their human life becomes their specialty once they're turned. In Jake's case, it's been games, sports and luck. (This is why he almost always beats Tre in fighting games and stuff, though Tre is usually able to best him a few times here or there.)
Most of them are pretty big fans of chainsaws.
Ra's al Ghul is a very superstitious man. Every hundred and fifty years, when the star Algol wanes and the Orphiucus system is brightest, he gathers his philosopher-lieutenants - the Nine Unknown Swordsmen - to his mountain retreat that he might be prepared for an inevitable usurpation.
But there comes a time when a rat finds a way into the fortress and widdles on the food. The day that the derelict and aimless Bruce Wayne attacks directly at Ra's honor and succeeds, winning a crown he did not want and a voice in his head.
Nine unknown men fell on their blades that day, and nine (or was it eight?) swords (or was it books?) were lost in the chaos.
That was a year ago, and by that time Wayne has returned to Gotham, bringing whatever remains of the Demon's Head with him, using his agents and resources to combat both regular crime as well as the newer, wilder crime which harkened to the pre-war days of costumed mystery-men.
But now, with rumors and tales of the villains of Gotham finding strange books and mysterious weapons, of madmen becoming even madder, must Bruce Wayne don armour as black as night to face the terrors himself?
---
I want to make a low-scale space opera TV series. It'd be primarily focused on comedy, as a bunch of ragtag rebels do everything in their power to bring down the vast empire that's taken/taking over large swaths of the galaxy(A point would be made to keep from painting every member of this empire in a bad light.)
The heroes have realized that destroying the empire is pretty much impossible, so they settle for infuriating it every chance they get. This includes committing tax fraud, wasting imperial resources, and generally being nuisances. As the show goes on, they would become more devoted to actually striking out against the empire, culminating in the creation of a resistance movement and full-scale rebellion.
The aesthetics of the show would be deliberately low-budget and inspired by early Nintendo hardware, run through an Alien/Blade Runner blender.
I got this idea while watching Spaceballs.
T: Basically what happens in Sparks is the gang goes off to find the Skateboard while Tre is off vacationing, and while they're in the junkyard they find The Rift, a tear in reality that creates weird shifts in its surroundings, to the point where a whole city can be affected by its "wrath" (if you can call it that).
Max, being the genius that he is, jumps inside. The rest of the gang thinks he won't come back out, but he does, and then he's able to lift cars and stuff. The Rift itself closes after all of them go into it, so that's why Tre can't get any powers. Apparently there's a different guy who overheard the gang talking about it though, and so he finds a way to reopen the Rift for his own gain.
K: Nice. Also of course Max jumped in first. Being max.
T: Yeah, he's that kind of dude.
As you could expect, the evil guy, Erik, finds a way to gain his own powers, but once he does it, the tear might open up too far for its own good-- and it might just release something even the Crew themselves might not be able to stop from taking control-- first Greyson, then the world.
K: So wait, the Rift begins to brainwash them?
T: No, they're immune to the Rift's effects but something else occurs.
K: What does?
T: It doesn't create zombies, per se, but the Rift does start to take over people. Erik is the first guy we see who does.
K: So the Rift's power begins to sap people of their willpower and kinda makes them mindless?
T: Yeah, though it can't take over people with ridiculously high willpower-- that's the reason why the Crew can keep themselves in control, Tre included.
K: Yay! Willpower!
T: Tre does have a bit of trouble with it though, since he's already kinda bummed about the whole "no powers" thing and jumping in the Rift would just make him like Erik, or worse.
Essentially, the gang has to keep Erik at bay and close the Rift before it becomes something bigger-- a crack in reality itself.
K: Oooooooeeeeeeooooooo
----
Weird, half of that I came up with on the spot but half I already had planned before I told K about it.
anyway, ahem.
So in another Sparks related thingy, I'm starting to think it'd be cool if somebody, hero or villain, had the ability to change how someone else saw their environment. It wouldn't be mind control, per se, but just a bit of a perception switch-- almost like an on-the-fly perception filter that changes at the user's will.
for personal reference. These are Transformers OCs.
Name: Chromeplate
Faction: Decepticon (Chromeplate's Crew)
Alt-Mode: Cybertronian Car
Equipment:
Path Blaster
Subsonic Repeater
Scatter Blaster
Invisibility Cloak
Appearance: Small, especially for a Transformer, with a small, mostly featureless domed head with a single "line" visor serving as optic input, no mouth. Chromeplate is almost always painted an assortment of bright, metallic, gaudy colors, see below.
Description: Chromeplate is the leader of the small squad of four mercenaries named after himself. In practice, they are almost always Decepticons, due to the Autobots' general unwillingness to trust mercenaries in general. Chromeplate and his squadron do their work well, and are well-rewarded for it. Chromeplate himself tends to spend the money he earns on fresh coats of paint. Always in some bright, eye-catching color. Chromeplate is a bit of a peacock in this sense, and likes to show off. Camouflage is not really a problem for him, due to his cloak. Chromeplate is surprisingly effective at direct combat for such a small 'bot, and often uses his size to his advantage, bobbing and weaving between the legs of larger foes.
Name: Stratoreactor
Faction: Decepticon (Chromeplate's Crew)
Alt-Mode: Cybertronian Wingman Jet
Equipment:
Neutron Rifle
C.L.U.T.C.H. Turret Sentry
Energon Repair Beam
Appearance: Tall but wide, mostly painted a faded orange-on-silver. Head is bare silver with two sharp, red eyes.
Description: In addition to being the team's impromptu medic, Stratoreactor ("Strat" for short, his full name is reserved for people he doesn't like) is also the Chromeplate Crew's support combatant, directing his C.L.U.T.C.H. turret to assist the other members in combat and using his Energon Beam for quick repairs while he does. He enjoys zipping around the battlefield while doing this, but that's mostly because he has a not-so-well concealed addiction to transforming. His transformation cog is beginning to wear out, and as such, he's in the market for a new one. His orange paint and scratched off bits thereof hint at his past life as an Autobot seeker, one he has left behind with little regret.
Name: Steelsides
Faction: Decepticon (Chromeplate's Crew)
Alt-Mode: Cybertronion Convoy Truck
Equipment:
Energon Mace
Riot Cannon
Appearance: Steelsides is the second largest of Chromeplate's gang. He'd look larger if he weren't hunched over all the time. Has a sloped, gorilla-like head with a pronounced jaw and chin. He has blue eyes, and is painted blue and silver.
Description: Steelsides was a mighty Autobot warrior once. Emphasis on "once". He did not betray his faction as such, rather, he was a victim of unspeakable tortures in one of the many citadels of Kaon. He was effectively lobotomized when Chromeplate (then under a very brief tenure with the Autobots) found him. He, of course, "freed" the warrior, and had Stratoreactor reconstruct the ex-Autobot's brain. He is not terribly intelligent--indeed, he either cannot speak, or simply doesn't--but he follows orders seemingly of his own free will. He and the Steelsides who were captured by the Decepticons so long ago are not truly the same person.
Name: Curbstomp
Faction: Decepticon (Chromeplate's Crew)
Alt-Mode: Cybertronian Wrecker Tank / Immobile Artillery Cannon
Equipment:
Gravity Cannon (x2)
Scrapmaker Machine Gun
Energon Harvester
Corrosive Slime Cannon
Flak Shield
Appearance: Curbstomp is massive, easily Titan-sized. His body is rather blocky, too, making it difficult for him to squeeze through small passages. He is painted purple-on-black, and has a prominent Decepticon symbol on his chest.
Description: Curbstomp is by far the most outwardly evil of Chromeplate's gang. He is not in the company for the money, he enjoys being feared and reviled. He will, if allowed, often leave a single victim alive out of many, so that his legend may grow among the ranks of the Autobots. The wicked triple-changer has no tolerance for the messages of peace that Optimus Prime preaches, and dreams of one day getting the chance to fight the Autobot leader himself.
Lineage of the Primes
Primus
Prima
Alpha Prime*
Decimus Prime
Guardian Prime
Nova Prime
Nominus Prime
Sentinel Prime
Zeta Prime
Optimus Prime
*the only Prime to have ever retired rather than be killed. Now known as Alpha Trion.
An idea for a video game setting: The Chaos Plane. It would comprise of several weird floaty island thingies that share a biome: One is called Fractured Forest and is just a series of forest islands floating in chaos space. Another would be called the Cascading Isles (If it sounds familiar, it should; I got the idea for the name, and by extension the entire setting from the area of Vvardenfell called the Ascadian Isles) and would comprise of a single large island with a huge waterfall and underneath it are smaller islands that feed off of the waterfall (hrm, could've explained that better). Another one would be called The Spiral Planes/Drillfrost Peak which would be sort of a two-in-one area. On one side would be a fairly bare plane area that spirals downward, but you can go through certain caves to go to the other side and switch gravity, putting you on an icy mountain that goes upward.
FLIPSIDE: THE TABLETOP RPG
RACES
standard Flipside races
Humans--
Identical to humans from our own world. Comparatively rare on the Flipside, where they are far outnumbered by Witches and Oni (also hairless primates, and sharing a relatively close common ancestor, but otherwise distinct races). Humans are a minority in most nations in the Flipside and have a small kingdom of their own (Terrende). They are capable of interbreeding with Witches, Oni, and (due to their nature) The Changing, but rarely do so. Humans in nations other than Terrende are considered something of a novelty by other species. Most humans on The Flipside are dark-skinned, as Terrende is located partially in a desert. Humans are not born being able to control any type of Magic but can learn it in the rare event that they befriend a being who can and is willing to teach them.
Witches--
Outwardly very similar to humans, Witches are in fact something rather different. Witches on the whole were indeed once humans (or rather, the close ancestors thereof) but the same event that split Earth and the Flipside altered their genetics to give them innate access to and control over Prismaticka, making them inherently magical. Witches are disinclined to create and use technology, as magic makes most of it unnecessary (though this has changed recently to at least some extent), as such most Witch-ruled nations live in a technological level comparable to that of a late medieval or early Renaissance in our own world. Witches are usually thin, and are physically weak, their muscles having atrophied somewhat over the generations. Height range in witches is significantly wider than it is in human beings. Full-grown Witches can be anywhere from 5 to 8 feet tall. Eye and hair color also vary widely, with shades such as emerald green and deep purple being rather common, and rainbow and even transparent hair being rare but not unheard of. Skin color is mostly a similar gamut to humans, though literal black or white skin is possible. The most drastic difference between Witches and Humans however, is that all Witches appear, to a human anyway, female. They are not so, as sexes do indeed exist in Witches, but many of the physical distinguishing features have vanished. Witches are the most common species on the Flipside
Oni--
Oni are a short, stout race of humanoids that are, like Witches, descended from Humans. Oni have no nations of their own, usually either keeping to a tribe or clan, or joining the civilized societies of another race. Most Oni appear male, much as most Witches appear female. Oni have a wide range of skin and eye colors, running the chromatic spectrum. But most Oni’s hair is either black or white.
Spirits/Jellies--
The creatures known as Spirits are not undead at all. Rather, they are humanoids related to The Changing and descended distantly from jellyfish. Their light composition gives them the appearance of being ethereal, and their ghostly floating only serves to add to the confusion. There are two main cultures of Spirits, Northern and Southern, Northern Spirits often live among Witches or Humans, making their livings as fortune tellers, or entertainers. Southern-culture Spirits prefer to live away from other civilizations except rarely, and often have descriptive names (such as Moving-Slowly) in contrast to the simple, monosyllibaic names of the Northern Spirits (a famous example being Siin, one of the old Prima of Dorado).
CLASSES
Otherworlder: As an Otherworlder, you are a curiosity to the residents of the Flipside, you are (or rather, once were) a mere ordinary human from our own world. But some twist of fate landed you here, and your body reacted to the mystic energies of this new plane. You've become far stronger, faster, and more energetic. Fighting comes naturally to you, but you can generally smooth-talk your way out of a situation pretty well. Back on your home-plane, you were probably incredibly average, maybe even rather nerdy. But how you react to your new life depends on the individual, you might never want to leave, or you might want to get home as soon as possible.
Meta: Physical fighting class with a side-dose of leadership skills. Great in 1-on-1, and can also buff teammates. Takes hits to things that require intimate knowledge of local culture, though, for obvious reasons. Generally has only slight knowledge of magic. May also be the party's smith and equipment enchanter.
Focus Mage: The closest thing the Flipside has to a wizard. As a Focalist, your role is pure offense, and you don't react well to situations that can't be solved by blasting something in the face. Witches are often Focalists, but you might also be a human, or even an Oni. You keep your focuses bag on-hand at all times. Always ready to spark a fireball or blast an enemy with a magic energy beam. You also likely wield an arcane cannon--legal or otherwise--to channel your vast magic powers through.
Meta: Mix of your standard sorcerer and a barbarian. Good for combat-heavy campaigns and comes with a very wide variety of offensive spells, with some defensive and support as backup, but needs material components for almost everything. Good for "cool factor" too.
Beast & Master: Technically two characters in one, you have total control over some manner of magical creature (or smaller creatures, should you so desire). Your command of magic is highly specialized, being mostly aid for your minion, but when the two of you are in the same room (which is often, you're inseperable) you make mincemeat of any would-be opponents. Your creature can be anything from a stoic golem to a savage tamed monster.
Meta: Unusual class to say the least. Needs a solid role.
Alchemist: More proactive arcanists (read: Focalists) often decry Alchemy as an overly highbrow, elitist form of the arts. But you know better, you know that careful study of mystic chemical equations balanced and distilled into liquid form is the path to true power, slow though it may be. Your formulas can do anything from dramatically increase your own physical capabilities and those of others (mutagens), to bring enemies under your sway, perhaps even permanently (potions) to even alter the physical properties of matter itself (elixirs). You keep a collapsible formula brewery on your person at all times, because one never knows when the next breakthrough might come to you.
Meta: Versatile class, can serve as healing, buffing, offense with thrown potions, and even melee (with mutagens) in an extreme pinch. Best played by a clever player who can make use of the many assorted formulas the class can create in unusual ways.
Tinker: As a tinker, you can be many things. A mad scientist, a studious transhumanist, or simply someone looking to better the lot of his or her people. As a tinker, you have a few options for making your particular mechanical brand of magic work. You can write out long scrolls of reality-altering "code". You can create and experiment with magical devices, and even imbue life into automatons.
Meta: Class that needs the most work. Might get split into a mechanical tinker and a magic "computer programmer". Needs a defined role.
Mack Fremont
aka "The Samurai of Ironton"
A skinny drifter with dark hair, pale skin and big brown eyes. Wields a plastic katana he thinks (or at least, claims to think) is a real one, often picks fights. Homeless and currently wandering the United States with The Trucker. "Mack" is short for Mackenzie but if you tell anyone that, he'll cut you.
Ebenezer Dunbar
aka "The Trucker"
Retired trucker who rambles all over North America in his old big rig. Likes Jimmy Buffet, enjoys Mack's company. Has an old teddy bear named Arty.
Your idea is really cool. You seem like you're good at world building.
oh the tabletop.
Yeah, I hit a rather major snag though unfortunately. I don't know what to do for mechanics.
The d20 system confuses me, I don't know anything about GURPS, and making my own system from scratch is just a no-go.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis