A Mile is Not Enough, Recruitment 3

[Viirin]

I'm Viirin, creator and usually GM of my game, A Mile is Not Enough. We play over Discord, but not verbally. A lot of us (like me) need a written record to keep stuff straight. Since very few of my players are in the same country or timezone, we have our own rules to keep stuff moving.

But let's get to the fun part first. It's better that way, right? I eat my dessert before dinner, thank you very much. Also I eat dessert after dinner. I'll try to help you all do the same thing.

"A Mile is Not Enough" has been going on for years now, and none of the characters have really changed much. They aren't really supposed to- everyone is an NPC. What does that mean? It means that your character is weak and unimportant. Not someone anyone would bother writing a story about. I'll give some examples.

Let's say your character is a horselord from Lord of the Rings, or a tarutaru blackmage from Final Fantasy 11. There are a lot of these people, and in their own culture in their own universe, they don't stand out. Individually, they're just part of the background. We don't even know their names, and don't see their faces, because they aren't worth focusing the story on.

Why would you want to be some random loser? A lot of reasons! Let's get that horse-riding knight from Rohan. Now, take him and his horse out of the plains, out of Middle Earth, and out of Lord of the Rings. Let's put him in... the Johto region of Pokemon.

Are there horses in Pokemon? No. "There are horse-like pokemon, though! So the horse would become a rapidash?" No. It would be a horse. Such a thing can't happen there, which instantly makes that rider and his mount stand out rather obviously, doesn't it? That's not even mentioning that the knight has a sword and kills monsters, which also doesn't happen in that entire universe. He just became unique. Special. Not because he's special or unique, but because his new surroundings make him so.

Let's look at the blackmage. Take her out of her universe, and put her in Star Trek. Does magic exist in Star Trek? No. But this mage can cast Fira. How does that get explained? You'd have to figure that out. The people of that universe might come up with their own answers, but it won't be what your character says.

I've pointed out some rather obvious things, but I'll be more blunt here:

Your character is an NPC. They aren't an edgelord, they aren't cocky/confident enough to decide that they can conquer everything they see because their own wimpy abilities in their world are eldritch in other ones. They are weak. They always will be. They have to learn about whatever local area they find themselves in, and adapt to it. Maybe they'll gain abilities from other places, maybe they won't.

Some of the characters have adapted to a campaign and gained the ability to own a planet they have unquestioned control over. Some of them have adapted and gained more skills. Some have adapted and learned magic. All of the characters have been murdered at least once, but that wasn't the end of their stories. Some characters were killed and that was the end of their story. Some characters disappeared and were forgotten. Some characters disappeared and had their bodies and souls desecrated.

Which brings in Nexus's Point Shop! We give out Points to the characters when the player does different stuff- solves a puzzle, survives a challenge, or we just make stuff up to give them Points anyway. These Points for loyalty and good roleplaying can be traded in by your character for various things (I have it all posted on my World Anvil page and my Google doc), all of which are basically just story hooks for yourself. But no physical items except local currency.

Who or what is Nexus? Nexus is the in-character personification of the Roleplay itself. No character will ever learn this, and all characters are forced to meet him. (I make sure that it's as uncomfortable for everyone as I can.) There is a Point Shop item to buy the knowledge, but it can't be afforded as it would take a player over a thousand real-life years of play to earn that many Points. I said player, not character. And I also said real-life! This is also something no character will ever learn.

Okay, let's look at a rule summary:

Evil characters are acceptable, and so are criminals. What isn't acceptable is any kind of character or post that would make my current players feel uncomfortable to remain in my community and game. If I need to tell you what that is in detail, go to another game now, please. Even if a new player joins the game in the next 5 minutes, they're a current player and fall under my protection too.

Since we adventure in established franchises, you can't do things that would affect those franchises canonical stories, so don't make a character that would try.

All players need to know who their character is. I'm more than happy to discuss this in order to help you! I don't like railroading players, so once your character gets past the Session Zero, you'll have to run them on your own as much as you can. I will help, but I won't put a straightjacket on your character and wheel them from plot point to plot point. That's excellent grounds for Nexus losing interest in the character and they get erased.

You're in charge of keeping your own character sheet up to date, and giving me a Google doc link to it (I'll provide a blank to be copied when you're approved, as well as the Discord invite link). We play on my Discord server and write everything out, there are no exceptions.

All characters have to have a Unique Item. This does NOT mean an item that there's only one of. It means an item that, just like the NPC you're making and focusing on, isn't important for their world. The best item anyone made so far is a cruddy wooden sword that broke shortly after a campaign started. Still, wood doesn't exist in ReBoot or Clayworld, so it's very unique!

I'm happy to provide a World Anvil link that has a LOT on it (I worked on it quite a bit, but still have a lot to do) as soon as anyone asks. I think I wrote enough for the recruitment post!

[Kvard51]

Interesting concept. I’ll take a gander at your link.

[WindStruck]

I'm very interested in this whole concept! And I believe I have a character in mind.

So I guess, shoot me the links whenever you get the chance. Maybe it's best over discord with the giantitp website acting up lately...

[Feathersnow]

Very interested! My first pitch would be a feral zerg from Starcraft 2 who came into possession of an egg that will grow into a building if properly fed. She can burrow, hide, spawn little biodrones, and talk telepathically. None of which are unusual or noteworthy for sentient, autonomous Zerg.

If that's too much, I can come up with other pitches.

[Viirin]

Wow, three interested already? I'm happy. Funny story to tell first. So, right now we have 3 active players, and one more is on hiatus (posting frequency is supposed to be 2x good posts a week, like having your character reply to someone saying "ok" isn't a good enough post to count towards that).

Hiatus- let us know if you'll be busy. I have a huge roleplay mechanic set up for this, which I'll explain at the bottom of this post. First, I provide what was requested: A WORLD ANVIL LINK: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/a-mile-...-enough-viirin

The three characters we have right now:

An NS5 robot from the movie version of I, Robot. It doesn't have a name, but it was given the nickname Fiver by a saiyan warrior. She quit. But Fiver was modified by others and itself a few times, so it's Sevener now. I'm going to change my character's name to Eighter pretty soon, probably. Yes, I'm the GM, yes, it's my character, but it's not a GM character? Plus, I give GMhood to other players after they've been around long enough and they ask. (The time with us required is one real life year)

A mistborn allomancer from The Cosmere. I've had to learn a lot about Brandon Sanderson's work to make sure the character was being played as an NPC, and they are. The player was GM of an Arknights campaign before the campaign we're in now.

A zerg broodmother, that's currently in the queen stage. She has so far acquired zombie-ism from Zombieland and impossible genetics from Homestuck. Her biomass is mostly on a derelict spaceship and her Quest Planet given to her by Sburb, called The Land of Gravity and Quills. Minecraft's GMming is dibbed by them.

The player that will be rejoining us when his work training is over is a grizzled human mercenary and his half-lysofar son (light elf from Norse myth as seen in the shareware video game Dusk of the Gods) from the dark ages from another roleplay he and I made together (we've gamed together for like 8 years now) and he was the GM of Zombieland and co-GM of Terraria when we were there a couple years ago.

So, with the zerg character: The conversation I had with my other zerg is that they'd need to find a psychic in order to gain the psychic powers zerg are known for. Because zerg essence (you know Zigara, Abathur, Kerrigan, and even Zaxz never said 'genes') infests worlds with even a single cell, there's a lot of restriction. We can't affect canon stories of other franchises, so if (and I do plan on taking us there) we're in The Little Mermaid, scratching... anyone would affect canon. But you also can only be as smart as your zerg or hive is. Also I'd have to know whose hive and what time you were spawned- Zagara after Kerrigan's ascension is a ridiculous force for salvation and good, repairing the worlds the protoss glassed. The overmind's spawn didn't think that way until Zagara did. Damn, I love that... uh, hey genderfluid people with Dissociative Identify Disorder, what word do I use?

Okay I said I'd explain the "AFK mechanic" thing.

Alright! Roll up your sleeves for this one. You all know how a Bag of Holding works, right? It's a bag on the outside and a portal to a pocket dimension on the inside. Great. I think that's a wrong interpretation.

If you played Final Fantasy 11, look at how many players ran into the housing area. There isn't enough space for all of those rooms!

I did mention players who own planets, and that we can't affect canon stories. So where are these planets when we're in The Elder Scrolls?

Nexus made his own universe, but didn't put anything in it. The player characters, which he calls Contestants, put things in it. If you claim a planet using valid rules, or steal something using a special Point Shop item, where do these things go?

Nexus's empty universe. I call it the Static Map. It isn't "Static" because it doesn't change. It changes a lot, often! It's Static because connection to this universe comes with the characters. Since it's an entire universe, there's infinite space. Every bag of holding empties into that universe. Every claimed planet is removed from its home reality and put there instead. Every teleported aircraft shows up there, too.

One player teleported a tank to his magical floating island, and it now floats around it like it was a moon. One player has a shadow planet with a magical floating island orbiting it like it was a moon. One player has a forest planet with a spaceship in orbit, visible from the forest surface. It doesn't affect any canon anything, because it is part of this game's universe, and no one else's. We just get to shove things in it.

That's also where the zerg grow. But, just like with other proper roleplay rules, you can't affect other people's worlds unless you both talk it out and agree.

But now comes the time to say something else, another rule. It's really a rule for me. Players that quit or are kicked don't have any rights over their character anymore. That's up to whoever the GMs are from that point forward. Everything that character bought, started with, or stole, is now owned by Nexus and is redistributed at his leisure.

It's why I made the Unique Item rule. Players who make a character, don't post, then quit, waste everyone's time. Well, no more! That cool item they chose to go with their character can be used by someone else. That also goes for characters around for a long time- everything they got can be given to someone else. Even worlds.

[Viirin]

Yeah, Giant in the Playground is taking like 4 full minutes to just refresh.

Anyway here's the link to my Discord: https://discord.gg/6EuhRFKRr2

And the character sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

[Feathersnow]

Oh wow! You already have a Zerg! I was actually specifically requesting a feral pre-overmind Zerg from Zerus, which would presumably follow different rules. BUT! I don't really want to step on treaded ground.

So- pitch two- a Thallid mana-user from Dominaria. I have a mox Sapphire that lets me cast Blue spells even without the rituals needed to bond with the land.

[Viirin]

I never heard of Dominaria, so I'm researching that right now!

[Viirin]

Oh wow! You already have a Zerg! I was actually specifically requesting a feral pre-overmind Zerg from Zerus, which would presumably follow different rules. BUT! I don't really want to step on treaded ground.

So- pitch two- a Thallid mana-user from Dominaria. I have a mox Sapphire that lets me cast Blue spells even without the rituals needed to bond with the land.

I can't accept, with what I've read. The Mox Sapphire is powerful, and having one instantly makes your character noteworthy, so that's a no. A stick with some mold on it would be an approved item, in terms of importance. Remember, your character isn't important. But even ignoring the items, what I just read suggests that the thallids aren't intelligent enough to be a player character.

The thing I read said they build houses, and use weapons, which says they are smart enough, but it also said they're just hulking brutes. I think I'd need to know more to make sure they aren't any different than any other thallid unworthy of being written about. At that point, I could accept the character. Still not the item, though. Something they'd have picked up and had easy access to that any other random thallid could have gotten without it being meaningful.

[Feathersnow]

The original setting for Magic: The Gathering. To be absolutely clear, my PC is *not* a Planeswalker. They are canonical all 1-in-a-million prodigies and PC material.

[Seandiggersby]

Really interesting game concept. I've got a few character ideas I think could be cool in a game like this if your still looking for players.

[Viirin]

Really interesting game concept. I've got a few character ideas I think could be cool in a game like this if your still looking for players.

Let's see what you got! I just got 3 players, so another wouldn't be unwelcome. What ideas do you have?

[DasIrrlicht]

Sounds interesting, and more then a bit silly. It also made me realised how few franchises I actually see myself as knowledgable about. I am interested however.
First silly idea I can think about is a Wasp from Bug Fables.

[Viirin]

Sounds interesting, and more then a bit silly. It also made me realised how few franchises I actually see myself as knowledgable about. I am interested however.
First silly idea I can think about is a Wasp from Bug Fables.

I don't know that one. *researches*

[Viirin]

https://bugfables.fandom.com/wiki/Wasp

So they look human-level intelligent (as all bugs in Bug Fables?) and with so little written about them, you're mostly free to do whatever and none of the swarm stands out. Great start!

I don't know the "combine" mechanics and the wiki isn't super helpful that way. Would your character be able to gain additional bug abilities from other bugs somehow?

[DasIrrlicht]

https://bugfables.fandom.com/wiki/Wasp
So they look human-level intelligent (as all bugs in Bug Fables?) and with so little written about them, you're mostly free to do whatever and none of the swarm stands out. Great start!

Most Bug Fables lore really is species-overarching and best found in the in-game lore books: The Wiki happens to have them transcribed.

But, Crash Course!
For the most Part, Bugs in Bug Fables can be treated like people with some special social structures. Mainly single-species Monarchies because of obvious reasons, but there is plenty of Bugs that by nature have no queen and just settle wherever they fit, and many bugs that are of a species of a hive leave it for whatever personal reasons there are and end up living in towns more assoiated with other species. There are also Lesser Bugs, which is just fancy for species that did not get sentience and act very much like your run of the mill monster.
Humanity, just known as 'the Giants', existed once before the bugs became what they now are and are considered so far out of scope that a lot of human made things are considered natural because to the bugs, it was just always there. There was also the Roaches which are your more traditional pre-courser civilisation, which where between humanity and the current population and are considered vanished as well.
Bugs know Magic is real, and see Crystals powering stuff or serving as a safe light source a lot. There is however just a few hands full of actual magic users so actually seeing it is not something most can claim. Simelary, Technology swings from mechanical rope & pully systems to buggy (In every sense of the word) drones. Most of the high tech is localised to places that absolutely require it to work however. Most.

The Bugs while considerable bigger then real bugs are still quite small. The wasps are around the size of a bottle cap in height.
Wasps are one of the few species still able to fly, along with bees. Kind of why I choose one of them specifically. So much easier to get around at that size if you are not to foot.

I don't know the "combine" mechanics and the wiki isn't super helpful that way. Would your character be able to gain additional bug abilities from other bugs somehow?

The closest thing I can think of to a 'combine' mechanic is cooking, making healing items and explosives mainly. There is no gaining the abilities of other bugs.
What there is is a Medal System, which you need to think of like Paper Marios badges. You level up, get some more medals points, can equip more Medals if you find or buy medals to your liking. Simple things like more HP, more points to use special moves, resistances against certain statuses, raised defence or attack, getting poisoned easier, healing from poison instead of taking damage, timed self-revive, passive healing, the occasional extra move or giving your existing moves the chance to deal status effects, ecetra, ecetra. Medals can do quite a lot of things, if you find the right ones. I am probably not gonna have the right ones.

[Viirin]

Okay, that's fun. I see a few things, most of them good:

The Medal System I'd call a game mechanic, so your character would lose access to that. At the same time, everyone would probably gain it no matter what they are, if we go do a campaign in that franchise. Also, I'd say after that campaign (which we might or might not do, we already have over 100 campaign ideas), Terraria's Banners and Pokemon's Badges should probably be included in it.

I've had some rules in place for characters of diminutive size in place for a long time, but they've never needed to be used. Now they do. I'll give you a hint, I think you'll figure it out without me saying it:

A campaign in Watership Down, because the focus characters are rabbits, is the size we would be if we go there. The humans of that world would be giants to us, even though we'll have human characters in our party at the time!

But for anyone lurking: I'll change our characters sizes so they're all equal-ish. A minotaur and a halfling won't get sizechanged, because it's close enough. An Army Man from Army Men 3D will get changed to a normal human size in almost all campaigns, because we did try to not do that (we had a mech from MechWarrior and that super didn't work).

I still haven't decided if we'd be human-size or pikmin-size in Pikmin...

[DasIrrlicht]

The Medal System I'd call a game mechanic, so your character would lose access to that.

Absolutely fair, it is primarily a mechanic, but In-Universe there are people making the Medals, they are given out as rewards, some shops sell some, there is a black market for them, ecetra. But one can honestly just compare that to equipment in any other place so again, absolutely fair.

I've had some rules in place for characters of diminutive size in place for a long time, but they've never needed to be used. Now they do. I'll give you a hint, I think you'll figure it out without me saying it:

A campaign in Watership Down, because the focus characters are rabbits, is the size we would be if we go there. The humans of that world would be giants to us, even though we'll have human characters in our party at the time!

But for anyone lurking: I'll change our characters sizes so they're all equal-ish. A minotaur and a halfling won't get sizechanged, because it's close enough. An Army Man from Army Men 3D will get changed to a normal human size in almost all campaigns, because we did try to not do that (we had a mech from MechWarrior and that super didn't work).

If any given campaign shifts people around to fit sizewise to a local non-standard populance, being spontaniously dragged up or down to the same-ish size would be no problem to me for the kind of character I had in mind... But being significantly smaller does feel like it would make up a lot of the fun for that kind of character, so I can not say I would be happy about getting enlarged to human-ish size by standard, and in that case should probably start thinking about some alternate character concepts.

[Viirin]

*nod* That's fair. It's always good to have a list of character ideas, really. The one I have going was actually my second choice.

[DasIrrlicht]

*nod* That's fair. It's always good to have a list of character ideas, really. The one I have going was actually my second choice.

Second Idea gets to be from a franchise I never actually played because the current asking prize for the 'Full Game' is around 300€. That is to say, Stellaris.
A Synthetic Plantoid from a empire that was well on the way to become the first Bio-Trophies of Rouge Servitors. However, this Machine has been snatched away before they finished to network all the Robots together to do all the work for them. This specific Machine was supposed to manage a small botanical complex created for aesthetics and recreation by interfacing with countless drones and databases. Since it has been taken, it is restricted to its mobile, solar powered shell it occupied at the time. And therefore, unable to access most of its databases, any of its drones, and a majority of its equipment. What it did retain however was its programmed needs to take care of the wellbeing of plant-people, plants and people. In mostly that order. Some things may have been more scrambled then most because of improper handling.

Spoiler: And they look so niiiiice

Show

[Viirin]

Second Idea gets to be from a franchise I never actually played because the current asking prize for the 'Full Game' is around 300€. That is to say, Stellaris.
A Synthetic Plantoid from a empire that was well on the way to become the first Bio-Trophies of Rogue Servitors. However, this Machine has been snatched away before they finished to network all the Robots together to do all the work for them. This specific Machine was supposed to manage a small botanical complex created for aesthetics and recreation by interfacing with countless drones and databases. Since it has been taken, it is restricted to its mobile, solar powered shell it occupied at the time. And therefore, unable to access most of its databases, any of its drones, and a majority of its equipment. What it did retain however was its programmed needs to take care of the wellbeing of plant-people, plants and people. In mostly that order. Some things may have been more scrambled then most because of improper handling.

Spoiler: And they look so niiiiice

Show

It is that expensive, and I have all the DLC. If we were friends on Steam, you could get access to everything as long as I'm the one that makes the gamesave for you to join. You can't be a synth plant, because as a plant empire, when you synthetically ascend, your portrait changes to machine. It would be nice to be an empire of those fake flowers made out of silk at the dollar store, but it's not an option in the game.

I'm usually a Rogue Servitor, and you can't synthetically ascend your biotrophies. All machines in your empire (except cybernetic organics) are incorporated to your empire's network. I'll explain Rogue Servitors with an ice cream commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4IF...annel=MikeDiva

[DasIrrlicht]

You can't be a synth plant, because as a plant empire, when you synthetically ascend, your portrait changes to machine. It would be nice to be an empire of those fake flowers made out of silk at the dollar store, but it's not an option in the game.

I'm usually a Rogue Servitor, and you can't synthetically ascend your biotrophies. All machines in your empire (except cybernetic organics) are incorporated to your empire's network

I think we talked kind of past each other there in that the implication of mine was that when you make a machine empire, you can make them rogue servitors, which implies that there was a time before they have gone rogue and before they get successfully networked. If the point is that one can not grab towards the implied histories it should be easy enough rectified by just making the Machine in question a Synthetic under Servitude Policies in a empire of a Suitable Decadent Race. Regarding the term 'Synthetic Plantoid', that is simply what the Wiki calls the portrait.

Also, I have no idea how you got to ascending Biothrophies.

[Viirin]

I think we talked kind of past each other there in that the implication of mine was that when you make a machine empire, you can make them rogue servitors, which implies that there was a time before they have gone rogue and before they get successfully networked. If the point is that one can not grab towards the implied histories it should be easy enough rectified by just making the Machine in question a Synthetic under Servitude Policies in a empire of a Suitable Decadent Race. Regarding the term 'Synthetic Plantoid', that is simply what the Wiki calls the portrait.

Also, I have no idea how you got to ascending Biothrophies.

Oh, I see what you're saying now (I think). I'm more reminded now of the Mr. Handy bots in Fallout that just manage a greenhouse. Does that sound more accurate?

[DasIrrlicht]

Oh, I see what you're saying now (I think). I'm more reminded now of the Mr. Handy bots in Fallout that just manage a greenhouse. Does that sound more accurate?

Futuristic Greenhouse Managing Robot hits it in a lot of ways. Given, less 'Greenhouse' and more 'Indoors Botanical Garden'. I imagen it to be supposed to be plugged into the building to control a lot of things without having to get to every plant personally, but being it has been removed from its building and the original plants it was supposed to care for it probably is not the happiest robot out there.

[Viirin]

Futuristic Greenhouse Managing Robot hits it in a lot of ways. Given, less 'Greenhouse' and more 'Indoors Botanical Garden'. I imagine it to be supposed to be plugged into the building to control a lot of things without having to get to every plant personally, but being it has been removed from its building and the original plants it was supposed to care for it probably is not the happiest robot out there.

Good thing it isn't capable of emotion! I am curious on the character, and it does sound like a good one. We just need to make sure that it isn't any different than any other robot in its pre-internet pre-spacefaring Rogue Servitor empire, I think.

[DasIrrlicht]

Good thing it isn't capable of emotion! I am curious on the character, and it does sound like a good one. We just need to make sure that it isn't any different than any other robot in its pre-internet pre-spacefaring Rogue Servitor empire, I think.

Pre-Rogue Servitor, style wise. And I think we keep talking past each other in many a way. 'a Synthetic under Servitude Policies' does imply outright aperture levels of awareness shackled by a bunch of laws, and does still imply individuals as well.

[Viirin]

Pre-Rogue Servitor, style wise. And I think we keep talking past each other in many a way. 'a Synthetic under Servitude Policies' does imply outright aperture levels of awareness shackled by a bunch of laws, and does still imply individuals as well.

Yeah, you're probably right. I just need to make sure that we have the same idea of what your character is before I can approve it. I would like another machine, especially because of some campaigns I have planned later.

I've always personally imagined the Rogue Servitors to be more like the world we have now, just another hundred years forward. Maybe 50. Your home humanoid drone does your laundry, folds it, puts it away. Your bed auto-tucks itself in. Your thermostat goes up or down to match what you like. Your fridge and kitchen tools cook and clean themselves and restock as needed, and monitor your health.

The Halo Top commercial.
The Black Mirror episode White Christmas with the cookie trainer.
There Will Come Soft Rains.

[Viirin]

One of the other players brought up something. How would your character be powered?

[Taelas]

Hmmn.

How would you feel about a rank and file phase II Clone Trooper?

[DasIrrlicht]

One of the other players brought up something. How would your character be powered?

I did mention Solar Panels, as plantoid style panels are prominently featured in the character portraits they use.
But I think you have sucessfully talked me out of it. Playing a NPC that in its own game is so far removed from the player to be reduced to a percentage of a statistic is making people ask to many questions, needs to much interpretation, and therefore, to much explanation. I would try and think of a third thing, but I am not making myself high hopes, cause I veto myself on half the things I know and the other half has not that much to pull from.