Half-Cocked Ideas

[Nouh_Bdee]

It's like Half-Baked Ideas, but sexy!

This is intended to be a forum for anyone to write out their SRP ideas that still need a little thought and care before they're ready to write. They can be something that already has writers and basic plot or just a seed of an idea or scene.
The goal is to help each other fill in the gaps in our SRP ideas and build off each other's ideas to start new threads and make sure our ideas are fully cocked!

Also, if you see an idea without a co-writer and you want to volunteer to co-write on that thread, I say let's encourage that!

I’ll go first:

• Your basic platonic-roommates-break-the-ice-with-stripping-games, except most of them are aliens.

Shout-out to Emstar303 for the thread title!

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Here's another half-cocked idea:

• A nervous, socially inept mage hires a strong and sexy orc woman as a bodyguard.

 

[Emstar303]

Ooh I like that half-cocked idea with the orc and the dorky mage.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Ooh, nice find for inspiration for the bodyguard!

Don't tempt me to start another one yet, though, Em! We both have too many right now!

 

[WhisperedDesires]

Not going to lie, tossing ideas in between two rather prolific and skilled authors is, at times, rather intimidating, but one must push forward if one is to grow. Therefore, two to toss into the endless void of thoughts and dreams, primarily because I've found more recent inspirations trending towards the Sci-Fi side of things rather than the fantastical, though I enjoy both immensely.

But I digress, the seeds of thought:

1) Corporate agents/mercenaries and their various encounters with one another. I imagine it more jumping around a bit in time, going from each of the various encounters... maybe. Overall setting might be something dystopian, with megacorporations ultimately controlling the world and fighting clandestine wars with each other over resources and influence.

2) Bit more far future and galactic scale. A mercenary ship gets contracted to transport "precious cargo", only the precious cargo turns out to be a someone rather than a something. Not sure how to make it work, but the seed is there...

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Not going to lie, tossing ideas in between two rather prolific and skilled authors is, at times, rather intimidating, but one must push forward if one is to grow. Therefore, two to toss into the endless void of thoughts and dreams, primarily because I've found more recent inspirations trending towards the Sci-Fi side of things rather than the fantastical, though I enjoy both immensely.

But I digress, the seeds of thought:

1) Corporate agents/mercenaries and their various encounters with one another. I imagine it more jumping around a bit in time, going from each of the various encounters... maybe. Overall setting might be something dystopian, with megacorporations ultimately controlling the world and fighting clandestine wars with each other over resources and influence.

2) Bit more far future and galactic scale. A mercenary ship gets contracted to transport "precious cargo", only the precious cargo turns out to be a someone rather than a something. Not sure how to make it work, but the seed is there...

Don't be intimidated! This is exactly what I wanted this thread to be!

#1: It would be a bit different to do an SRP in the form of vignettes, but I wold love to read it.

#2 has a lot of potential as well. How many crew would be on the ship? I'm imagining it like The Transporter, but in space, and I love it

 

[Obuzeti]

Brainstorming is how you get shit done as a writer. Shame has no place, here.

~*~

#1 reminds me a lot of the Shadowrun setting, not going to lie. A vignette RP series is going to involve the main characters being set up on cooperating teams mostly (due to aligned interests or their patrons using them to build long-term relationships with other factions). It would feel a lot more real, in a sense, because RPs tend to take place over a very short period of time, relatively speaking, to maintain dramatic tension; spacing it out means your characters will, by necessity, have other things going in their lives just because of all the time between each vignette. Filling that space requires more creativity and thought, though.

On a related note, I think a large part of the story would involve the line between plugged and unplugged conversations - that is to say, those that will be recorded and reported to the parent corporation or patron, and those that won't. That step between formal and informal is likely to be a big one in a world of information control and liability, such as that likely brought into existence with an entire world controlled by corporations.

Dystopian settings are fun to write, but by their nature are difficult to mix with other genres, because they consume the setting entirely - the foundation of your character's culture is a fundamentally cracked concept, and people by and large are going to be unhappy about it (otherwise, you've just got a future setting, not a dystopia). You're setting the overarching moral and ethical challenges of a story with dystopia: are your characters looking to escape that looming, crushing despair of the setting, or are they angling to change or challenge it? Are they adapting to someplace different? If so, is it likely that the mega corporations are going to be looking to exploit and colonize someplace untrammeled by competition?

~*~

#2 poses a lot of questions immediately. If the contract doesn't state that the cargo is a person, then you have at least the presumption that slavery is immoral (because otherwise the contract would be quite literally "transport this slave" and there'd be nothing covered up about it). It also suggests that regardless of the culture, someone's dabbling in human trafficking, and sets up a power struggle between the main characters, who presumably don't care much for being faux-slavers, and whoever has enough power and money to have people be shipped around in boxes.

If the contract does state that, what is so important about the person as to motivate the transporter to change their methods, or changes them from implicit "object / cargo no different than a sack of potatoes" into a real person?

Or is it a concealed escort contract, a la Han Solo guiding Leia across a presumably hostile galaxy? How is payment going to be conducted when you already have the client separated and alone? Or is it a stowaway who paid to ship a box and hid in it, desperate to get away from wherever they were?

You have options for the initial premise, but the long-term setting is going to be a lot of shuttling between places, and one character having a lot more power and narrative drive than the other, because whoever owns the ship is going to wear the pants in this relationship, not least because threatening to throw someone out the airlock is a very hard thing to top in an argument, and the ship owner is going to start out probably very annoyed by whatever deception landed them with a person instead of a box of Fritos or whatever they thought was going on.

 

[WhisperedDesires]

1) I admit fully I threw "dystopian" around primarily because it is the one setting most often associated with the "megacorps running clandestine wars on each other". I don't necessarily require it to be so, though I have always enjoyed the idea of two people finding a relationship in each other and struggling, in their own way, to hold onto that against the endless and uncaring grind of a world that ultimately sees them as little more than cogs in an endless machine of industry and clandestine dealings. That such a struggle exists, that the question of "what do we do?" comes up is perhaps something I find enjoyable. Maybe the question itself is something the characters struggle to answer. Yes, they've found each other, after a fashion, but when your corporation orders you to put a gun to your beloved's head and pull the trigger, does saying no really hold appeal? Or are you willing to tell your corporate master where they can shove it, go rogue and then have to be forever on the run, looking over your shoulder for the inevitable bullet that's coming for you?

I do like the mention of the difference between plugged and unplugged conversations. What can and should be said when one is "on the job" or otherwise under the watchful eye of the corporate master, and what can be said within the relative privacy one can manage to find for themselves. I agree that such things would likely be a massive portion of how characters interact with each other. It works in the scope of the setting, but it's hardly what most people like to rp, at least in my experience. Granted, that's somewhat limited, I've very few chances to play with a setting so reliant upon information and its exchange being such a powerful and all consuming source.

Perhaps the ultimate end of the story in and of itself would concern itself with the end goal of the characters, a possible transfer from the vignette style to a final story arc, where the pair in question accomplish whatever final goal is decided, whether that be bringing down the corporate system(or perhaps simply staring the gears turning for their inevitable end and the rise of something that hopefully brighter) or finding a "way out" that frees them from the endless despair and crushing of hope. Of course, you could also go super dark with things, but most people I've encountered don't particularly enjoy having their characters meet an ignominious end at the hands of corporate kill teams, failing to escape the corporate meatgrinder that is the world.

2) This idea seed is probably the most largely underdeveloped of those currently swimming within the sea of my imagination. I threw it up there because if I didn't I'd likely lose the thread of thought, and that's always frustrating.

I'd personally lean more towards the idea that whoever this person in question is that the ship is transporting it's someone important enough to warrant NOT being able to just ditch them at the first opportunity, or perhaps bearing some power or piece of information that renders it a generally bad idea to try and threaten them indefinitely. Not sure I absolutely like the last option, the power balance would still be largely imbalanced, but I think that's something of that nature of the whole thing.

That could be dealt with, at least somewhat, by perhaps some of the setting lore and nature of the ship's crew in question, but that's something to be considered and bandied around, or perhaps just generalized. I could come up with some elaborate backstory I'm sure... honestly my mind is already doing it to some extent, suddenly some nameless government has become the Terran Protectorate, or perhaps some specific organization within it, be it criminal or semi-legal, serves as the antagonists of the story... Ah, I should let it stew a bit at any rate, and getting too involved leaves so little room for others to add their own spice to the mix, so to speak.

Ah, I enjoy world building and finding out how and why things are the way they are. I could never actually write the story and still be pleased with having created a world that ultimately pleases some bit of my brain. All that better that someone has responded by throwing further questions and considerations for my brain to turn over and consider and poke at till something makes sense to it. Always a pleasure to have someone poke holes in your ideas and worlds and see how the world can be worked to account for them.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

I really love the idea of slowly turning vignettes into a serialized story, leaving little breadcrumbs as you write these short encounters that don't seem too connected until you tie it all together at the end. It's the kind of thing that would be difficult to pull off, but very rewarding if you can, and worthwhile even just to try.

I love worldbuilding, too, but I also feel like part of the joy of an RP is worldbuilding as you go: inserting little bits into your posts that give you and your partner a bigger view of the world your characters live in, and seeing more little bits in your partner's post. If I didn't want to be surprised by learning something about this world I helped create that didn't come from me, I'd just write the damn story myself. And you can't get that if you don't actually start the story.

Even if none of the ideas in this thread, though, ever see the light of day as an actual RP, it's still a fun exercise to pick apart and build on each others thoughts.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

I posted this on the “Looking” thread, but I also wanted to put it here because it definitely fits the premise. What do you folks think would make this idea work?

I've had an idea stuck in my head for a bit about a bunch of roommates who decide to break the ice with a game of strip poker, but with a twist. Bidding is based on people proposing things they would do if they lose the hand. The other players decide if it's an escalation over the last thing proposed. If they're not willing to escalate, they fold. Hopefully it starts out tame and then progresses. I think this would be fun with four or more players.

This is a more fleshed out version of that first post in this thread, but I’m not super-attached to the characters being aliens anymore. I mean, I’d love that, but it could also be a mundane setting and I think it would still be interesting

 

[justspitballing]

I posted this on the “Looking” thread, but I also wanted to put it here because it definitely fits the premise. What do you folks think would make this idea work?

I've had an idea stuck in my head for a bit about a bunch of roommates who decide to break the ice with a game of strip poker, but with a twist. Bidding is based on people proposing things they would do if they lose the hand. The other players decide if it's an escalation over the last thing proposed. If they're not willing to escalate, they fold. Hopefully it starts out tame and then progresses. I think this would be fun with four or more players.

This is a more fleshed out version of that first post in this thread, but I’m not super-attached to the characters being aliens anymore. I mean, I’d love that, but it could also be a mundane setting and I think it would still be interesting

This sounds like a cool idea for me. Wouldn't mind role playing as a woman, a geeky/shy girl wanting to break out of her shell that gets some what tricked into this.

So ya, sounds good! And ya, a run of the mill settings without aliens would be better for me at least.

 

[justspitballing]

Time to add to the pile!

Thinking of doing a Nightmare on Elm Street thread! Very sex repulsed woman wants to be a writer and write a best selling book on Freddy and his many murders. She buys the Elm Street house and decides to live there for research. She starts writing her book, but Freddy starts to invade her dreams and attack her with what she fears most! Hard core sex!

It's scary and sexy.

 

[Obuzeti]

I posted this on the “Looking” thread, but I also wanted to put it here because it definitely fits the premise. What do you folks think would make this idea work?

I've had an idea stuck in my head for a bit about a bunch of roommates who decide to break the ice with a game of strip poker, but with a twist. Bidding is based on people proposing things they would do if they lose the hand. The other players decide if it's an escalation over the last thing proposed. If they're not willing to escalate, they fold. Hopefully it starts out tame and then progresses. I think this would be fun with four or more players.

This is a more fleshed out version of that first post in this thread, but I’m not super-attached to the characters being aliens anymore. I mean, I’d love that, but it could also be a mundane setting and I think it would still be interesting

That doesn't sound much like something you'd do with people you're only starting to get to know. If you've got an alien culture in mind where intimacy is a lot more free and probably even necessary (I've always imagined space-faring culture to involve a lot of mutual trust, because it doesn't take a lot of mistakes to get to vacuum out there - I think everyone implicitly understands that Fucking With the Ship Is Bad), that's fine, but an icebreaker it is not.

Put a spin on it instead - it's a sci-fi tale still, a crew on the end of a long delivery or trip, freed from the grip of zero-gee to enjoy the good life, like liquids you can actually drink, food that isn't freeze dried, and showers instead of squeeze-soap. Everyone's relaxed and in a good mood, and someone proposes strip poker. Things ship from there, but necessarily, escalating every turn means things get too intense real fast; put in some mechanic where it only has to escalate every round, and whoever does gets a reward of some kind, like getting to sit out the next round or propose a dare for someone else.

I dunno how to work that, I never even liked Truth or Dare in the first place. It's a starting point, what I'm saying.

Sprinkle in references to everyone's diverse and weird cultures, home planets and places they've been, people they've met and boinked, and you've got a compelling thread.

 

[Obuzeti]

Time to add to the pile!

Thinking of doing a Nightmare on Elm Street thread! Very sex repulsed woman wants to be a writer and write a best selling book on Freddy and his many murders. She buys the Elm Street house and decides to live there for research. She starts writing her book, but Freddy starts to invade her dreams and attack her with what she fears most! Hard core sex!

It's scary and sexy.

It sounds like you'd get a lot more mileage out of using the old-fashioned tale of incubi instead - dream demons that lay with women, usually for the express purpose of a hybrid child; the Doris Bither case (famously remade as the 1982 film The Entity) would also be a good prompt, as it involves another phantom assaulting women both in the physical realm and in dreams.

I'm just saying that 'skinless pedophile rapist' is not a role that sounds appealing to write for a lot of people. It's rather one dimensional.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Put a spin on it instead - it's a sci-fi tale still, a crew on the end of a long delivery or trip, freed from the grip of zero-gee to enjoy the good life, like liquids you can actually drink, food that isn't freeze dried, and showers instead of squeeze-soap. Everyone's relaxed and in a good mood, and someone proposes strip poker. Things ship from there, but necessarily, escalating every turn means things get too intense real fast; put in some mechanic where it only has to escalate every round, and whoever does gets a reward of some kind, like getting to sit out the next round or propose a dare for someone else.

I like the second adjustment for sure. The first is good, too, I guess I’m just not convinced yet that the original scenario couldn’t work. Plus there’s something I canmt quite articulate that I like about the dual juxtapositions: a mundane apartment in the city, but the roommates are aliens; and they don’t know each other super-well, but they’re playing strip poker and having sex. I don’t know why I like that so much, but I do.

The core idea here that I haven’t been able to shake, though, is wanting to play it like an RPG, where each player gets PMed their hand (determined randomly, of course) and then they can have their characters bet realistically, and then role play the consequences of winning or losing. Having never actually played strip poker, though, I’d appreciate any additional guidance on making the mechanics part of it effective and as thoughtless as possible for the players.

 

[Obuzeti]

My brutally honest diagnosis is that you like it so much because it's a mixture of the excitement of sci-fi and casual sex delivered into the setting that's easiest and most familiar for you to write (apartment life). You probably want to engage in some writer separation between yourself and your characters.

I've been in RP for probably fifteen years at this point, so heed me when I say: the more people you get involved in an RP, the slower and more difficult it is to get everyone going in the same direction, and that difficulty scales with the level of indulgence involved (that is to say, once the heavy petting starts, you're going to have a hell of time keeping everyone from splitting off into their own smut threads and abandoning the thread, or keeping their attention on the plot, such as it is).

It's technically possible to get a random deck generator on the internet, deal everyone fake hands through PM, and play a simulated game of poker over RP. I just do not think it's going to happen - it's a very niche fetish that involves a lot of setup and probably people PMing each other to remind themselves who has what (god help you if you're playing a poker variant with a flop or board). You're better off going to Fetish & Sexuality or General and looking for people to actually play a round of online strip poker with with some actual poker simulator somewhere.

Unpleasant truths, here, but you're mixing mediums. If you want to play strip poker with people, go do that. If you want to write, you're playing to gimmicks too much.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

I don’t know that I agree with that. Based on what, admittedly, little I’ve written so far, a mundane setting would be the new and novel part for me. That doesn’t matter, though.

You might be right about the impracticality of merging the mediums this way. I’ll see what the response is. If it’s not enough to try then I guess I’ll take that as a sign.

 

[Obuzeti]

I'm probably coming off as harsh. That's my bad. I'm used to delivering pointed criticism when it comes to writing, because the gentle suggestions get ignored. I do firmly believe it's best to be aware of problems in a prompt heading in then figure them out 20-40 posts later, when you've invested enough effort to get pissed off about the thread being a dead end, however.

That said, so far my contributions have been me poking holes in everyone else's ideas, so I'll pitch a few onto the bonfire.

~*~

Eigengrau remains probably my favorite thread concept in my entire time here on E-Lit - it was intended to be a narrated exploration type thing, with the other writer exploring deeper and deeper into a house that has nothing to do with the limitations of human space, and trying to figure out what is happening and why. It didn't take off due to schedule conflicts, but setting up the scene had me salivating.

(yes, heavily based off the House of Leaves, before you ask)

~*~

Where the Pine Barrens Go was half challenge and half serious - there was a writer here awhile ago, Aliceinchains, that loved weird characters, and she challenged me to bring my weird A-game. This was the result, in which the Pine Barrens of New Jersey amount to a interdimensional tollbooth and tourist spot for a variety of alien life that is not necessarily friendly to human purposes. It never even got off the ground, but you can probably see the general angle I was going for there. Strong Douglas Adams vibes, too, if you like the Hitchhiker's Guide series.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

These are both really interesting ideas. I feel like they could go in a million different directions. Let us know if you get them going, because I'd love to read them!

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Five mile long, ½ mile radius, O'Neill style generation spacecraft. About 5,000 inhabitants but 1,000 are 'not yet available'. To maximise genetic diversity, central computer chooses the 2,000(ish) pairings who will produce the next generation's crew. Computer doesn't consider age, race or physical attractiveness but matches on genetics and mental 'compatibility'.

What tensions could we create/overcome between selected pairings?

Older/younger, interracial, beauty/beast are the most obvious standard tropes, any of you inventive thinkers like to list a few more?

 

[justspitballing]

Five mile long, ½ mile radius, O'Neill style generation spacecraft. About 5,000 inhabitants but 1,000 are 'not yet available'. To maximise genetic diversity, central computer chooses the 2,000(ish) pairings who will produce the next generation's crew. Computer doesn't consider age, race or physical attractiveness but matches on genetics and mental 'compatibility'.

What tensions could we create/overcome between selected pairings?

Older/younger, interracial, beauty/beast are the most obvious standard tropes, any of you inventive thinkers like to list a few more?

You could really, and very easily, do a forbidden romance here.

IE. The computer puts together two different couples. Both couples don't really get along well together at all, but then the two couples meet each other. Instant romance sparks between the guy or woman in couple A towards the guy or woman in couple B and they greatly want to be together.

But this would go against the computer's programming so it isn't allowed and they must hide their love and get together in secret. Sooner or later the computer system finds out and tries to break them apart and force them to be with the couples they were assigned to.

Who will win in the end, true love or a heartless machine!

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Ooh, how would the odd people out feel? Would they be drawn to each other or pursue their algorithmic match?

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

How much of the 16 (or so) square miles is farmland? Is any kept as wilderness/parkland? Is there open water? The population density (and potential for eavesdropping) isn't too high unless we squeeze them into an urban area of under 2 square miles, but if we do that gives them quieter areas to escape to for their clandestine meetings.

 

[justspitballing]

How much of the 16 (or so) square miles is farmland? Is any kept as wilderness/parkland? Is there open water? The population density (and potential for eavesdropping) isn't too high unless we squeeze them into an urban area of under 2 square miles, but if we do that gives them quieter areas to escape to for their clandestine meetings.

All really good questions and I'm glad you liked my suggestion.

I don't know how your computer system works in your story. If it's very extreme it may indeed try to make very small living areas for everyone to be super practical. It could be so dedicated to being practical that it's like a nightmare. Everyone is in a cubicle, none descript home/in forced unloving relationships until the star crossed lovers come along.

I think if played right, it could be a story well worth reading and I think for sure you should try to start writing it.

I, on the other hand am still looking for a male writer for this thread Welcome to fuck house! to play some evil horny demons.

Ya, kind of scraped the Nightmare On Elm Street idea. I just wanted to do something REALLY over the top and Fuck House fits the bill.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

All really good questions and I'm glad you liked my suggestion.

I don't know how your computer system works in your story. If it's very extreme it may indeed try to make very small living areas for everyone to be super practical. It could be so dedicated to being practical that it's like a nightmare. Everyone is in a cubicle, none descript home/in forced unloving relationships until the star crossed lovers come along.

I think if played right, it could be a story well worth reading and I think for sure you should try to start writing it.

I, on the other hand am still looking for a male writer for this thread Welcome to fuck house! to play some evil horny demons.

Ya, kind of scraped the Nightmare On Elm Street idea. I just wanted to do something REALLY over the top and Fuck House fits the bill.

I'm not sure I can write it at the moment, I've got a serious case of block in my SRP story (I only do one at once).

I looked at that, nice concept but: a) see above paragraph; b) I'd only be able to interact with Kassie.