General Discussion, Plot and Otherwise

[Rook]

That last paragraph is the issue, Aryn. As it stands, there is a great imbalance that allows for that to happen unless you are part of one crowd of characters. Anything short of that is met with red-tape and blather about how things are off-limits. Destiny Islands can be invaded, even if there is nothing for an enemy to gain from it, which is fine and well to an extent unless trying to gain something impossible such as opening the door in the cave, but yet TWTNW cannot be touched because it's tucked in it's own little corner, despite there being people who can get there and lead people there. This is my point. If one can happen, the other should be allowed to as well.

[Aryn007]

Hmm, interesting. I have some questions.

Who is responsible for the Secret Place door and its plot goings on? If it gets opened, who is writing the result? If it is barred by World magic, who is responsible for enforcing this?

Why and how is The World That Never Was off-limits?

Can we clarify the circumstances surrounding modes of transportation and space?

Random thought: You know...it'd sort of be fun to require some random travel posts, where characters can get attacked by Heartless on the way to and fro Worlds. Not always, obviously...but maybe some people get the unlucky dice roll. Just a thought.

[Zephiris]

No worries, Rook. We're all contributing for WD. Our dose of hatespew has been lacking for quite a while, most fortunately. And when we do get it, it comes too weak to be taken seriously. xD

- Any qualms/further comments regarding adoption (temporarily or no) of multiple canons, with permission, by people who wish to further plot, even if part of the same organizations? Opinions: should mini profiles / temporary portrayals be allowed, or should we encourage the upkeep of said characters for the sake of continuity?

@aryn:

Sorry, I must be misunderstanding you somewhere along here. xD But by 'who responsible' in your latter two questions, I'm a bit confused - do you mean to ask what will be the repercussions of the incident, or how it will be enforced? It seems to me that is something that we should agree on, not dump on one individual. The poor soul is bound to meet with opposition if they tackle it on their own. As far as a write-up. . . if we have/need one, who writes what doesn't seem like something we ought to worry about at the moment.

In any case, for the DI dealio in particular, nothing may even happen if the Heart isn't endangered. (Though if it can end up going belly-up like you say, many Light character's reactions would be very vivid to roleplay. Emotional response of that magnitude hasn't occurred recently. ) Now that I think on it, that actually leaves a bit of a hole in my noggin, being something not quite crystal clear for me - can someone explain their thoughts on what precisely may be required to open it? Obviously it's a better guarded Heart than Port Royal, but the Islands have fallen before.

Can we clarify the circumstances surrounding modes of transportation and space?

A bit confused on what you're questioning. What aspects of it should we look into?

Hmm. I agree, the fun 'random event' occurrences may be something else we might want to think on. Also, I remember this being brought up - a system for facilitating character movements between worlds. It can be frustrating to wait for someone with a gummi ship to come along, especially since staff really crack down on people applying with gummi ships, and for good reason due to their rarity. I remember a suggestion somewhat on the lines of a gummi taxi/rental, obviously not that simple, but it would be interesting to look into.

Why and how is The World That Never Was off-limits?

Well. . . if we try messing with its scales in a (probably warg-filled) attempt to create balance, it may be off-limits simply from people on the site drawing the line. Otherwise, it's simply its remote location protecting it, and even that won't keep away all. Now, as far as the destruction of TWTNW being off-limits, I'm not even sure how it would be possible. The world's an oddity. I can't fathom it having a Heart, if it supposedly is a Nobody world, or something that Never Was.

[Aryn007]

Sure, I am happy to clarify! Sometimes things make so much sense in my head an zero sense on paper/screen/whatever/whatarewegoingtodoaboutjargon30yearsfromnow.

I do not want to know what will be the repercussions of the incident, but I think it is very important that someone or a (small group of someones) does know. I would love for this to be treated as a sort of mysterious event, where we as rpers do not know what will happen because our characters do not know what will happen either. Of course, I want this because of selfish reasons: I want to play my character with authenticity, writing fresh and exciting reactions, and I really want to feel like I am in the shoes of Sora. I know that when I am privy to plot information, I have a terrible tendency to steer my character in directions he might not go if he was acting strictly and completely in character.

When we're playing Dungeons and Dragons and we are lost in a tunnel, we do not know what is behind the door. But the DM knows, and whether we like or not, when we open that door something is bound to happen.

If the World is going to say...explode, well, that's a huge writing task. Whoever does it needs to have a great deal of knowledge about the details of what's going on and the agreed upon rules of the given circumstances. I don't really care who does the writing or the plotting, but I want to know that someone is doing it, so that when the time comes for that explosion, we aren't sitting around with different images of our heads on how it went down. I want a guiding point. What I do NOT want is to end up opening this door and one of the characters to decide what happens as best suits his/her needs. Just because the Org members think something will happen, does not mean that it WILL happen. I do NOT want a bunch of confused write-up that contradicts our given circumstances. I do NOT want to find myself in a position where everyone has different ideas about what SHOULD have happened.

If we can agree that such-and-such will write what happens and we will accept that outcome as part of our story, then things will go smoothly and we can avoid conflict. As long as we agree to follow one set of given circumstances, we're good.

This ties into why I want to clarify the rules about traveling between worlds. I feel we need to be very, very clear, so that we can also solve the WTNW questions. Here is what I'm noticing, but I don't have the official word on it, so please, please correct me if you notice something wrong.

*Gummi ships allow travel in any and all of the in-between spaces of Worlds
*Gummi ships are fairly common.
*Corridors of Darkness allow travel in any and all of the in-between spaces of the Worlds.
*All Worlds have fixed locations in the in the in-between space.

If we accept the above facts, then any person with either a gummi ship or the power to summon a dark portal can visit The World That Never Was, provided he/she can pinpoint its location. In that sense, it appears it is not off-limits.

Can we confirm or correct these:

*The World that Never Was is a World in a fixed place in space.
*The World that Never Was is the counterpart to the End of the World.
*The End of the World has no heart. It is comprised of fragments of destroyed Worlds....basically a Heartless World.
*The World that Never Was has no heart. It was built by the Nobodies, artificially.
*Both Heartless and Nobodies can be destroyed.

If we accept these, then The World that Never Was can be destroyed as well.

The question is...is any of this accurate? Please help me gain a better understanding of the rules surrounding our gameplay.

[Charme]

This seems partially correct.

First off, before we can determine whether or not they can be 'destroyed' we must explain their existence. TWTNW was never stated to be an artificial World. It was never explained, never given a purpose. The reason it looks so artificial isn't because the Nobodies made it, it was because Nomura wanted it to look like a construct, replicate the Nobodies abilities to think, reason, and plan, in contrast to the Heartless' brutal, instinctual reasoning. I'm not going to spoil anything, but TWTNW is not done for story-line purposes. It was not destroyed at the end of KHII. In essence, it most likely doesn't have a Heart, or its Heart is entirely dormant and already locked, similar to Traverse Town, so it cannot be destroyed. There is a chance that with each destroyed World TWTWN grows bigger, similar to End of the World, taking pieces of other Worlds as they die, but this hasn't been stated as of yet. We have not found any way to destroy this World.

The End of the World is not a world at all. It is a collection of broken fragments. In fact, there is a point where you can plainly see the fragments of all worlds in the chasm with all the gummi pieces. The fragments of ship there are actually the walls of the Worlds that were destroyed, carried to The End along with the pieces. Essentially, this is where Ansem, Seeker's Kingdom Hearts resides. While it could be considered a World due to its nature, it has no Heart nor did it ever have one, as you said. Therefore, it's not even a Heartless. An explanation could be that the fragments of World drifted that way because Kingdom Hearts attracted them, or maybe the piece of World with a Heart attached finds its way there, returning to the Darkness. When Ansem, Seeker of Darkness died and Kingdom Hearts was resealed, the Hearts of all taken Worlds were restored to Light, therefore making The End nonexistent. In time, if Worlds are destroyed there could be another End built, or for plot reasons, we could already have one established (since the Dark XII are far more efficient than lesser Heartless).

Therefore, the only World proven to be destructible is End of the World, and can only be destroyed through locking Kingdom Hearts, since it's been canonically destroyed once before, similar to that of DI. In essence, both of these locations are end-game and canonically, if they were to be destroyed, it would mark the end of WD, simply. Unless we were to replace them with the Worlds of Kingdom Hearts 3, whatever they may be. The fact is that these locales are the thrones of two out of three of our primary forces and they are necessary to the storyline.

[Aryn007]

Hmm, ok, I'm down with that maybe we haven't found a way to destroy this World yet. It makes sense that for the moment, there isn't a logical way to bring it down and therefore, it cannot be brought down.

But I would like it if we didn't rule it out.

WD should not depend on TWTNW to make an rp, or even the Orgs, or even Sora. Yes, it needs to start with those characters, because that is the groundwork, the basis and an essential part of the given circumstances, but if things are done right, there should always be an opportunity for a villain or hero to pop out of texture of WD, growing the story and claiming a spotlight. Even if one side wins or thinks it has won, it is not the end of the story. ALL the main characters could DIE, but there will be that one character who wants to avenge his/her friend's death, that one who goes crazy and starts taking over Worlds, that one who is inspired by King Ansem's work, that one who must claim the lost throne, that one who is looking for treasure left behind from the wars fought. There should always be rp...and to be honest, because rp doesn't happen very quickly, it could be years before it ever comes anywhere close to that.

[Era]

Still awaiting unanswered question/concern... I would like to post in the DI threads, but don't know if it's kosher or politically acceptable for me to do so right now.

Can anyone answer this for me? The whole "change how we're RPing this mid-plot" is sort of a wrench in the works for my brain. Review of my concern/question, and following that, clarification would be appreciated. =] (It can be found as my second post on the linked page.)

Thanks guys. And keep rocking on.

~Era

[Zephiris]

I think you're referring to the new battle system we're testing (and if not, feel free to correct me). In that regard, I think we should just go full steam ahead and finish the thread as usual, without stopping to figure things out. We can use another thread to guinea pig this quick-RP system. A decision has been reached otherwise that you might not have been present for;

It has been assumed that Riku locked the Heart of Destiny Islands upon returning home. That being said, the Organization will not be able to open the Door. So the thread can move on now with that in mind.

Hope that cleared things up? (:

[Era]

@ Zephiris: Thanks. =] You were able to answer the concerns I felt I had raised. I will be posting soon, then!

[sumdood]

I've got one thing that kinda bugs me, honestly. <.<

How are the newer members allowed to get from world to world? I'll be honest, ever since I joined WD years ago, I've been a profile lurker. Every time I've been on this site, I've always lurked new profiles just because I like to see what new characters are coming in. And one thing I noticed, which was starting before I left just this last time, was that newer members were, essentially, not allowed to have any form of transportation between the worlds. Gummi ships, so I've seen in critique posts by staff, are too rare for someone to just have one. Dark Portals are essentially reserved for those who are heartless/nobodies/gain the ability through RP.

I guess I'm just kinda curious as to why the most commonly seen modes of transportation are so heavily restricted on new characters in WD. I mean, if gummi ships are so rare, why would Cid have set up a shop to sell gummi pieces in KH1? For game mechanics reasons aside, I guarantee nobody would set up a shop like that if there wasn't a good need for it, and if gummi ships are as rare as they're considered to be here on WD, then I guarantee that Cid wouldn't have had enough of a customer base to be able to make a living selling those gummi pieces.

But then again, that could just be my mentality on it. Again, I'm just kind of curious as to why. It honestly makes no sense to me.

[Zephiris]

As far as new members getting to their worlds on WD, it's muchly encouraged to use a creative method (I always liked Dirb's) or the sure-proof world-taken-by-darkness.

Most common method with new members who have already reached their world, and to transport to another, was to hitch a ride with someone who does, in fact, have a gummi ship. As far as why: it's because canonically, gummi ships are rare. Most worlds don't know of the existence of others. Gummi technology is relatively new, and their parts are a product of the destruction of a world's barrier. You likely know this, if you've lurked many new profiles.

Cid himself lives in a hub world with knowledge of Gummi ships and direct connections with their inventors. I don't find it surprising he has delved into the business side of them.

There has been quite a bit of contemplation recently about a new system for people earning gummi ships/building them through mech shops like what you describe, or have world canons readily available for transport. (I'm thinking Rikku, Chip and Dale, ect.)

Ideas are always welcome.

[Ellie who has 0%]

...Firstly It was originally an Accessory Shop and became a gummi shop for in-game uses. So you can dissect in-game materials until you turn purple, and people done that before and enough times we go walking in circles. Also as I said before...enough times what is a common/popular/repetitive element in the game doesn't necessarily makes it as common as within its context. We've seen 13 Humanoid Nobodies; they're popular to us, but a rarity in context.

Also while you're being technical, some people in their profiles aren't as technical in the creations of gummiships or how they even got it, which is why I'm sure majority of those has been denied. Yes a gummiship is just a detail, but there's enough background to set up for it, and we had people in the past who were able to execute that well, while others didn't.

In short I would say, for a supposed intermediate to advanced rpg, >> you should be able to be elaborate to give things purposes not solely because you as the rper...wants it; we don't even allow people to have abilities without reasons and I would presume the same for a gummiship.

Also very few people have used star shards as a means of travel. Thus far only 2 on this site are approved to have one. One was given, while the other proved more significance to the character other than "I want to be able to travel".

Also there are a lot of crafty ways to get from world to world. I had Olette poofed into Atlantis do to heartless warg and flailing in a dark portal. Also I had Kairi hitch a ride to get to Radiant Garden (where she's currently roaming around since she doesn't have ways to leave yet) and Aphrodite can teleport to other worlds.

[Shun]

This kind of funny, since I actually had (well, still have... now that I'm becoming kind of active its begun itching me again) the idea of taking chief mechanic Audrey Ramirez as a permanent character and open a Gummi Ship shop, similar to how Kuu's The Mu works.

But anyway, going back to your question, it's not that new characters cannot get Gummi Ships. Sure, they're rare as it's already been stated, but I consider ourselves pretty much lax regarding that. However, to give one to everyone and their grandma without explaining the whole process of getting it o.o and without a reason besides "well... I wanna travel YAY GUMMI SHIP" is simply unreasonable. Do you have a strong background explaining your ship in the garage? Then it's certainly plausible to let you have it. Otherwise... fat chance.

[Zephiris]

Agreed with both of you. I remember one very good profile that intelligently incorporated the 'gummi ship' and the mechanics of one's construction, and was happily accepted. Pity that person never did much with the character after that. xD