I will mention now, that I have thought of everything necessary to bring this RP over to forum format. So don’t go around thinking: “Wait this was one of those tabletop games with the dice and everything?!” and go running off to the hills.
You won’t be needing a random number generator, or any other exterior sources. Everything you’ll ever need to play will be right here in this topic.
Introduction
You can’t sleep. It started like that for all of us, back when we were garden variety insomniacs.
Maybe you had nightmares -gods know we all do now- or maybe you just had problems that wouldn’t let you get a good night’s rest. Hell. -maybe you were just over-caffeinated. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it was, eventually you to a point where sleep became a choice, rather than a mandate… and then it just dropped off the list.
And then, and only then, something clicked.
That’s when you started noticing the extras. An extra door here or there. An extra window looking out onto a city packed with surplus buildings, hodgepodge towers standing shoulder to shoulder, roofs angling into one another. Clocks chiming the thirteenth hour and unfamiliar stars twinkling in the too-clear sky. Streets and alleys that weren’t there before, leading to late-night markets that sold things like laughter and indecision.
When you took a long walk down the streets of the Mad City, you stopped being a Sleeper and started being Awake.
But that click you heard wasn’t from the secret world snapping into place. It was the sound of the Nightmares flicking off the safety and pointing a gun at your head. When you crossed over you became a target. They can smell you now, if they get close enough.
You’re chum in the water, my friend, and it’s time you got ready for it - before the clock chimes thirteen again. You’re going to get tired, more tired than you ever have before, but mark my words: sleep isn’t just off the list now, it’s an outright enemy that’ll strip away your vitality and leave you vulnerable. There’s no going back, and from here on out, there’s just one simple rule that must dominate your life.
Stay awake.
Don’t rest your head.
Character Sheet
Send these through pm. Please don’t post them here.
My name is…
And I am Your occupation
What’s been keeping me awake? What is the source of the character’s insomnia? This section should set up the immediate history of the character. What troubles him? What pressures turned him into an insomniac? Is he running from something? Does he stay awake due to nightmares? Has he lost someone dear to him and the grief is robbing him of sleep?
What just happened to you? Describe the circumstances your character is in now. A fitting beginning for your origin story.
What’s on the surface? What first impressions does your character give off. Tell us what is obvious about him.
What’s his physical appearance? What sort of personality does he have? Does he put his best foot forward- or his worst?
What lies beneath? Tell us some secrets of your character. The part of himself that he doesn’t want to show to the world if he can help it?
What’s his real deal? What secrets would he give his life to protect? How does he see himself? What lies does he tell himself?
What’s your path? What are your character’s goals?
Where is he headed? What does he want or need?
Exhaustion Talent
Madness Talent
Exhaustion Talent is a skill that allows the character to be thoroughly exceptional (almost supernaturally so) at a particular thing he can already do. Such a talent might allow him to climb seemingly impossible surfaces, run far and fast, perform calculations as fast as a calculator, or simply shoot things very, very, well. The definition must be reasonably narrow. Using the exhaustion talent can push characters closer to the point of needing sleep.
When a character grows too exhausted, he crashes. A Crash means the imminent danger of falling asleep. After a crash, the character will remain asleep, and unresponsive for an undetermined amount of time. When he wakes back up, he has no access to his talents until he reclaims his insomniac lifestyle, by staying awake for as long as he slept.
But, from the moment he falls asleep, to the moment he regains his power, he is like a beacon to the Nightmares, calling those nearby to his helpless body, possibly to become food or entertainment soon after. The only real chance of surviving is in the hands of those who watch over him as he sleeps and recovers.
Madness Talent allows the character to do something he simply can’t normally do, something outside the realm of human possibility. This might be as simple as flying without the aid of a device, reading minds, compelling others to tell the truth, or moving objects with telekinesis. Madness talents imply several levels of power at which they operate. Using madness talents push characters closer to the brink of insanity. If a character does go insane, he could become a Nightmare.
A character can snap due to overuse of the Madness Talent (though there are other ways as well). This is a moment of extreme stress, and he is imminent danger of going starkly insane. A character who snaps must spend at least one post acting on his psychotic break. Sometimes snapping is temporary, and sometimes it’s permanent.
There a few things to keep in mind when regarding your character’s Madness Talent. Madness Talents are not limited. Moments where the wizard blew the last of his spells, rendering him nothing more than a meat-shield, doesn’t happen here. Madness Talents are a tool for wish fulfillment, and you’re going to need them to win.
The downside is the harder you hit with Madness, the more things are going to spiral into chaos. The more you use your Madness talent, and the more Madness you use during your task, the more it’s going to screw up everything for everyone around you and wreck your life faster than a cheating man from a country song.
When creating your madness talent use this template:
What can I do? Describe what your talent can do. Describe the minimal, maximum, and possibly middle levels of your power.
How does it break me? What happens when shit hit’s the fan and you enter a fight of flight moment?
How do I change? [Optional] All power comes with a cost. What happens to you physically and psychologically as you continue to use your power?
Example
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You may be wandering how I’m going to determine when people Crash, or Snap.
At the end of every major encounter, I’ll post your characters Stress, Vitality, and Sanity. If your stress is too high, be careful how you use madness, as you‘ll be one slip up away from snapping. If Vitality is too low, than watch the use of your exhaustion talent.
Sanity dictates how close you are to becoming a Nightmare.
Rules
If you know anything about “Don’t Rest Your Head” you would know that is was meant to more “mature” setting. That does not mean you get to violate the Forum rules. Refrain from excessive swearing, violence and sexual content.
Do not take control of other player’s characters. While I understand it can be tempting when things come to a standstill, I will be the one calling the shots, if I feel we are getting to that point.
You can only have one character at a time. If your character dies you may fill out that character sheet again and play again.
Inactivity will result in character death. The Mad City is full of dangers and I won’t hesitate to use you as an example. You may make a new character afterwards if you wish, but I hope you would learn your lesson the first time.
No Godmodding. Don’t let those supernatural powers get to your head. Sometimes you will feel like a God. Sometimes you may even be a God. Go ahead and slaughter those insignificant minions. Have some fun, that‘s what we‘re all here for. But if you start going around killing those boss characters I took so much time developing in a single strike, or hand yourself everything you need to overcome the obstacles I’ve laid out for you in Deus Ex Machina fashion, than I won’t hesitate to make an example out of you.
Protagonists
Tyler Willow (Kratour)
Vincent Cambridge (Satou Asahira)
Arthur Twist (Sparrowsmith)
Daniel Willet (Niscp)
Locations:
The Mad City
The Mad City exists in the same space as the City Slumbering, also known as the world you used to think was all there was. The origins of the Mad City aren’t known to anyone.
What’s know is this: the Mad City is the extra place, the lost place where missing socks and broken toys come to live a second life. It’s where the thirteenth hour on the clock went, and forgotten constellations fled when their gods died. That door you thought you saw out of the corner of your eye opens into the Mad City, and every now and then, when the City Slumbering seems to swallow someone whole, it’s because they stumble through such a door.
The Mad City is crowded, packed densely, and overfull. The Mad City squeezes into the forgotten spaces in the middle of the City Slumbering. It touches every part of that sleeping burg, whether it’s in the shadows under a child’s bed, or at the back of a dusty utility closet, or down an alleyway that only exists for a few minutes past midnight.
The Mad City has a timeless, if relentless urban, quality to it, and you can find folks in all manner of dress, carrying devices and driving vehicles from any year of the last century of a half, pretty much wherever you go in it. Anachronism is the mode of the day, and sometimes the people living there don’t seem to realize that it’s been a century since they first set up shop.
Getting to the Mad City is difficult for the sleeping, but terribly easy for the Awake. From anywhere in the City Slumbering, an Awake person can easily identify an entrance to the Mad City. It might be a window that looks out onto a constant and strange night sky, a manhole cover shaped like a crescent moon, or a bright orange doorway that nobody seems to notice. Whenever an Awake person passes into the Mad City, the sleeping nearby don’t remember him stepping through a hole in the sky that wasn’t there. Entrances to the Mad City needn’t be constant or reliable, and thus often aren’t. Even the Awake have trouble finding the same entry-way twice, and even those entrances that say put and don’t change shape may suddenly start opening onto a completely different place. And unless someone is very, very, lucky, and entrance very rarely takes them to the part of the Mad City that they most want to go.
The City Slumbering
No game about the Mad City can really ignore the City Slumbering. It’s the place the protagonists once knew and thought familiar, but which may now seem just as strange as the Mad City itself.
Those how have become Awake, will find themselves feeling a strange hollow sort of connection from the City Slumbering. Old friends will be difficult to talk to, passers-by will eye the character suspiciously, dogs will bark incessantly at their presence, and favourite foods will taste just a little bit like sand.
This doesn’t mean the mundane world has forgotten about them. The troubles of modern life may still dog them whenever they emerge from the constant nightfall of the Mad City and into the dulled and strange City Slumbering. They’ll still need to pay off that mortgage or alimony. Their girlfriends will wonder where they’re going at all times of day or night. Their jobs will, in all likelihood, fire them, if the Mad City proves to be enough of a distraction.
More Locations
Key Terms
I’ll fill this section our with key terms as they come up in the RP. To keep myself from repeating things over and over, be sure to check back here for definitions, and information.
Goodies
I got carried away...
