Pastelland Forum

I can see why Mat loves being in a two-man group. Barely any arguments!
Um...Babylon, methinks the use of existing organisations won't appeal to many people. After all, everyone has a view on politics.

Compromise, of sorts, but must be using alternate timeline:

After centuries of mistrust and paranoia, the current technologically advanced (mainly due to so-called 'self-preparation') world is now moving into a modernised order.
A pact is created by many major powers to try and stem the backstabbing.
But like our world, the ‘east and west’ conflict is true, and other major powers will hate this idea. A Rogue Government who hates the new world idea (no reason given) decides the best way to gain is by joining the pact, but (secretly) only for their own gain. They eventually hold very important placings within the pact, or at least have bribed particulars.
They have done this so that they can ‘suggest’ an initiative (see earlier post) to “help the world along the way to this ‘new world order’” and that this initiative will soon be theirs to control (behind the shadows again), and if the true experimentation is found out, the pact will shatter from the extreme mistrust that will follow.
Two birds with one stone: the experimentation (may need to revise) and to kill the pact which they have hated since its -with them emerging as the political winners afterwards, the experiments giving them ultimate unchallengeable control.

I think for this version to work, a less ‘dark force’ themed Source may be in need.
So, effectively a slightly different but darker conspiracy, but I quite like it.

Now here is the interesting bit. If the player finds out about the source in the first game and the conspiracy later...
In the first game, they would have the opinion that the information is to be told to the world for its own good.
In the second though, the outcome of this would be so different that the player’s stance would change greatly, and different action would be needed. (Because if they did tell, the pact would come crashing down anyway, and the world would settle into carnage. Maybe the player might never get the word out, just leaving the Rogue to suddenly realise that all their research was ruined, and the decades of work was wasted. What else could they do? Nothing, and the pact would be safe. Maybe like Covert Front the player disappears for their own safety, and to keep the information safe forever.)

Sorry, I think I should have been clearer. It's wouldn't actually be the CIA, it would simply be an organization of similar position and objectives

Did I forget to say that I knew that? Whoopsadaisy.
Um...so, your opinion?

it looks like there's controversy of opinions in this topic, should we work on another topic first? for example, what's exactly "The Source" you mentioned and what's it for?

The source is an unseen field of energy surrounding the universe, and is capable of being a mental weapon. Effectively, the source of the weapons mentioned in two of the back stories.
Don't even need to call it that, it was only a temporary backing reference point.

And if we keep on working on other topics, we won't get anywhere. And the conspiracy is a major part. The back stories revolve around it.

I'm sorry if I sound bossy. I'm just getting frustrated that I keep on putting up ideas, and no one is critiquing it, or people start going off on tangents.

Boingo wrote:The source is an unseen field of energy surrounding the universe, and is capable of being a mental weapon. Effectively, the source of the weapons mentioned in two of the back stories.
Don't even need to call it that, it was only a temporary backing reference point.

And if we keep on working on other topics, we won't get anywhere. And the conspiracy is a major part. The back stories revolve around it.

I'm sorry if I sound bossy. I'm just getting frustrated that I keep on putting up ideas, and no one is critiquing it, or people start going off on tangents.

well, I'm not an expert on politics or history, to me most options seem plausible, so my opinion is not very valid...

and about the source, all known fields are unseen, have energy and surround the universe. maybe we'll have to work more on the details, at least on its effects.

Boingo wrote:I can see why Mat loves being in a two-man group. Barely any arguments!

On the bright side, it's the first and ony one in several years. On the dark side, we do some serious work and an inhibiting arguement is the first thing to pop up. On the grey side, arguments are good.

Anyway, I must say I find the whole "source" thing rather..... superfluous. In fact, I think we're taking modification of reality in general a little farther than neccesary. We started out with a conspiracy and a conceptual big lie. Now we're at alternate realities, radically foregein futures, societies engineered to fit details of the story and objectual big lies. I suggest we take few steps back and make the setting fit with reality, not reality fit with the setting.

Right, so we're going to look at this from the beginning? Or am I interpreting your post the wrong way.

At least with arguments it means we do have ideas, rather than just no ideas at all. And it probably means the final product will be stronger than if we did it individually and there was no one to point out the flaws.

Anyhow, in regards to Boingo's last post, I think he's right that we need to ( Or at least I need to) give critique on the ideas we have, rather than simply posting our (Again, at least for me) own ideas.

Perhaps we should do a big post giving critiques for each of the ideas we have so far. (Then again, we do have a lot of ideas)

Not begin from scratch, I was referring mainly to Boingo's idea, which had gradually complexified the simple and well-working concepts it was trying to merge. But I agree, let's critizie!

To begin with, boingo, I've already said most there is to say about your merges, they mess to much with the general setting, mainly it seems in order to justify your version of the conspiracy. Also, they have tendencies towards the golden mean fallacy.

Babylon, your's is great, simple, straight-forward and kinda realistic. It could need to step down a step or so on the mohs scale, and does limit the potential gameplay elements slightly.

As for the other two, whatever I thougt should be different about them I set right in my version.

Hope i didn't sound too negative.

15 days left.

Ancient Crystal wrote: Anyway, I must say I find the whole "source" thing rather..... superfluous. In fact, I think we're taking modification of reality in general a little farther than neccesary. We started out with a conspiracy and a conceptual big lie. Now we're at alternate realities, radically foregein futures, societies engineered to fit details of the story and objectual big lies. I suggest we take few steps back and make the setting fit with reality, not reality fit with the setting.

Well, two of the backstories relied on the fact that there is a mental weapon. That must be in there.
However, it does need a source. We can change this source later.

Order of things that need to be settled:
1. Universe Setting [we are here]
2. Time Setting
3. The Weapon
4. The Conspiracy
5. (Piece it together)

Let's put everything else aside, and model anything else by the things on the list preceding it. So, starters: the setting.
That's you, me, Babylon and Vortex to decide. And the problem is, not everyone will get their way.
I have my argument down below and that's my opinion.

"The problem with using a reality is that by using names, we would be offending someone no matter what stance we took. And having a futuristic game will always include hints on how the world ended up like this, and once again, someone would be offended. However, if we do have an alternate universe setting, there's less chance of this happening, and less pain in trying to get everything to fit."