Hey all, resident water-bending cop here. Anyways, I was sitting around and an idea struck me. I dunno if you all would go for it, but here is a shot. I was thinking that when the season changes for the MRO-verse to FALL (or Autumn), that maybe we could do a short Halloween themed plot? Though I don't know if everyone here celebrates that holiday, we can set it in New York.

Here is the shadows of an idea I may have:

On Halloween, as all the little kids are running around in costumes collecting candy and staying up late, there could be a mutant running around who is making people's worst fears come to life. This would be a good chance for everyone's worst fears to become publically known and they have to face them to survive.

If this seems a little too much like the Astral idea, then we could prolly set the story up inside of a cheesy haunted building that throws this scare celebration every year. This year though, all participants are to be locked inside as part of game. Those who don't beg to leave in the end will win some prize (haven't thought of that yet), but what the contestants and staff don't know is that the house has been taken over by fear-inducing mutant(or mutants), who are freaking everyone out.

Anyways, those are just a couple shadows of ideas I jsut wanted to throw out to see what people thought. Thanks for taking the time to read this!!

It's similar to the astral plot and the illusionist plot Emerald did.

It'd be cool to have something on Halloween for MRO, though. It doesn't necessarily have to be site-wide. It could be a nice little pool of people. I'll help you brainstorm ideas, Jorge.

*Eyes all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes dealing with Halloween for inspiration*

Tiny Fear Mutant, making people scared in a single house location is neat.

Bad guys, making people think they are their costumes (through strong psychic will manipulation) is cool.

Halloween-Costume-Wearing bad guys, gallivanting around New York could work, too.

Maybe some of these could be blended? A costume party gone horribly wrong? Mutant bank-robbers in masks running to the nearest place full of people in masks, using them as cover, while at the same time causing chaos? Making people think they are what they wear? Or maybe, they were just two honest, average college guys in bank robber costumes, but then, one of the duo had his mutation activate.

A bit like the Mask books from Goosebumps.

Reader Beware. You Are What You Wear.

Jorge, I really like this idea. It could be awesomely cool, and Shin those are indeed awesome eps to draw references from. Props there. I like the idea of combining multiple ideas...

Top Tip #1: If you plagiarise from enough different sources and combine them all, your work seems original. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle. Thanks J.K. Rowling! *thumbs up*

Sitewide or mini-plot is the first question.

If sitewide...

The GM in me loves layers. LAYERS, I SAY! It's much more fun if things aren't what they seem. And even more fun if,having worked this out, they're still not what they seem. As such, some ideas I've come up with on the spot, based on what we've got:

*puts on GM hat*

Causing fear, chaos, confusion etc in the city is good. But it needs an end or goal. So. We have layers:

Layer 1) Around the centre of the city people start screaming as some of the grizzly things people have dressed up as are apparently not costumes. X-Men/self-styled heroes/innocent bystanders could all jump at this.
Layer 2) That is a distraction. Two mutants (one who makes illusions, and one who is a strong psychic) are in central park, making people in the heart of NY (including house parties on the fringe etc) believe that they are their costumes, and creating illusions to support this.
Layer 3) That itself, is a distraction. There are a series of very important thefts in the city going on under cover of the utter pandemonium. Some of the monsters are illusionary, some of them are humans in costume that are behaving like...whatever they're dressed up as, so the good guys can't kill them. Some of them are probably mutants...fun times!

This is very similar to the illusionary thread: some people will be working to solve the problem, some will be contributing on the 'inside' to the problem by being caught up in the costumes etc.

If it's not sitewide, and is in fact....

A Mini-plot

It's a whole new ball game. Layers aren't as essential and it can be pretty obvious what the game is...or not xD

If it's a mini-plot then what I suggest is: A halloween house party goes very very wrong. Someone's little sister is upstairs and her mutation chooses this moment to activate. Everyone inside the house instantly has their memories (temporarily) wiped. They don't know they're a mutant, or that the clothes they're wearing aren't their real clothes. Their brains fill in the gap and they adopt the persona of whatever they're dressed as, possibly checking nametags for clues as to who they are. ("Apparently, I am Sir Nylon!") They find out about their mutations for the 'first time' too. Someone dressed as a wizard might think they had magic powers, etc...This has so much potential to be hilarious, it's almost too funny.

What I figure might happen is that the terrified mutant who's power has just activated is also a powerful psychic, who turns the inside of the house into a surreal landscape, filled with horrors with basis in reality. Each floor/room could be different, so the group will have to make their way across haunted deserts (carpeted floors) and past a raging waterfall (the bathroom) as the young girl is desperate to keep away the group of people dressed up as scary things.

The thread resolves as they get to the girl and work out what's going on, getting some of their memories back with every area they pass and foe they vanquish (the foes in reality being static objects like Sofas and lamps, but in the minds of the group they are alive and very dangerous). They then have to convince the girl that they aren't here to hurt her, at which point she'll terminate the illusion and restore everyone's memories.

This is 10 minutes typing off-the-cuff so if it doesn't make sense/sounds lame then feel free to ignore me xD

From a mod perspective, it's far easier to make it a small thread than it is to make it site-wide. Site-wide plots work for extended things. For short plots concerning only a choice few characters, one thread, or threads, are better. It's easier to pool interest, and it's easier to accomplish the goal the thread set out to accomplish.

Since this would be for a single day, it wouldn't need to be site-wide. If it's in a single area, it wouldn't need to be all over the city.

If we're going with the idea of a mutant causing this, the mutant would need a believable range.

Good idea for the little sister plot, by the way. That's a neat take, too.

-- BB, Shin, etc.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! *Lmao...*

Omg, I'm sorry but I just had this image of Jorge being dressed up as Neptune and having his memory wiped. He'd think he would be a god! LOL. That is awesome.

Anyway, I agree with Lenna, I really was just thinking of a short plot and it would be more easily controlled and the thread could probably move a little faster than if it were a massive thing. All I was thinking off was a small thread *nod nod*.

I really do like that second idea you have Nathan. Some aspects might be a little like the Astral idea since these rooms are becoming surreal places, but I think there is enough of a difference to pull it off. Anyways, I do love the idea! Hopefully we can get people involved.

I love all the ideas I've heard. Halloween has always been my favourite holiday and there is so much potential here. Shin, you are awesome for bringing up the Halloween Buffy episodes, those were the first I thought of too. In particular the changing into costumes episode, one of my favourites.

Anyway, whatever the specific details of what is involved in the end I officially want to volunteer Amber for the plot.

This idea of a Halloween plot seems really fun. As several people have said before me, it'd probably work better as a short plot than a large one, for the purpose of finishing within the general time frame. I'd say Nathan's Halloween party plot sounds like a good idea, fun, exciting, and a break from the usual theme of New York City, as it involves different settings and an odd environment. Even if that idea isn't used, just a general Halloween themed story sounds like lots of fun, costumes, disorientation, and excitement. I'll be deeply anticipating it.

Wow seems like there is a good response for this! I actually like the idea of the costumes and not remember who they are, believing they are their costumes and such.

What I think would be good, to get a good mix of mutants and humans, is to have the Haunted House they all attend be part of a charity thing. Whoever go's has like $5 automatically donated to some charity who set this thing up. While the various characters attend the party, that is when Nathan's suggestion of a the little sister character accidentally wipes everyone's minds and they believe they are who their costumes say. Or something like that. Anyone else have ideas to polish this one?

Amber and Rachel: Would love to have you both aboard if you want to participate!

I really love the idea of people becoming, in a sense, their costumes or at least believing that they've become their costumes. I think it would provide an excellent opportunity for some rather unique rp experiences and in a subtle way bring out some of the more internalized parts of characters. If no one knew who they actually were, however, there would be no motivation to try and reverse the effect. I would think there would have to be someone, whether character or npc, that wasn't effected or at least some hint for the characters effected regarding what exactly had happened and that something wasn't right about the whole thing.

Maybe the memory wipe wouldn't be a total one? Perhaps they'd keep one or two memories pertaining to something really important to them. That way they'd have incentive to try and figure out what had happened?

If the loss were total, they wouldn't know what their costume was meant to represent.

Thus, it'd make more sense for them to forget tidbits of their own personal history, but not their trivial knowledge...

I agree with Shin. What I'm thinking is that the mutant that causes this mayhem should be a child. And what I think would work is if the child, when she accidentally erases everyones memories, that her abilities not only erases peoples memories but puts their minds into overdrive to adopted the closest personality they get evidence forth...which would mean their costumes. She accidentally erases everything about them, leaving them psychically starving for a personality so they adopt the nearest thing to them that would make sense...their costumes. When they see their costumes, they automatically have a new personality based on what they know of their costumes.

...

Sorry if that sounded complicated or didn't make sense. Late right now. LoL.

That's exactly what I intended Jorge, I clearly didn't word it well enough. Everyone's personality and memories are wiped clean. People still remember trivia and skills: how to drive, what the country is called, etc, but they'll apply that knowledge in different ways depending on their costume. It'll shift to fit.

People have no idea WHO or WHAT they are, so someone dressed as a knight would see that they were dressed as a knight and adopt a knightly persona. They might become truly chivalrous, and speak with 'thee's and 'thou's, and treat the world as if it were the middle ages. A kingdom called America with fifty duchies. Police would become 'town guards' etc. There could be imagined relationships between people, depending on the position of everyone at the time of the shift.

Another thing I wanted to bring up was the no-risk scenario. The monsters/whatever that inhabit the house/world of the mind that you all perceive can't ACTUALLY hurt you. If someone gets 'eaten' by a huge snake, they'll fall unconscious, but be fine when they wake up. The table/sink/whatever the little girl made to look like the snake didn't actually move. But in killing it, you can be destroying the house ^___^

The mutant is a scared little girl, she doesn't really know what she's done, all she knows is that she doesn't like halloween, she doesn't like the noise of the party and she wants everyone to just leave her alone. As such, it will probably get progressively harder to approach her (the obstacles becoming more and more severe) even as your memories return.

Another possibility, and one I quite like (if I were running this as a GM, this is the one I'd go with) is that everyone loses their memory and becomes what they are dressed as, but one person didn't have time to grab a costume and so came in Mufti. They retain their memories and have to try and marshal these errant and wayward people who think that they are knights and bandits and magicians and robin hood etc, trying to slap some sense into them. Clearly something is wrong, their friends and...well, everyone is acting crazy and seems to have forgotten everything.

The first task is to convince them that there's something wrong. This might be hard, since Poseidon probably wouldn't like to be bossed around xD Then they'll have to enlist their help. No-one would get their memories back (in this scenario) until the girl restored them all at the end. This is actually a good idea because it explains why there are only a small number of posters in the thread, when there were more people at the party at the party: the NPCs mostly refuse to help, busy being Pharaohs and Monsters and what have you.

I also wanted to point out, in relation to this last point that less is more. The fewer participants you have, the faster the thread will move. It might seem like a good idea to have lots of people in on this, but more than like...5 and the thread will take forever.

Josh.

First off, I would like to say that I ABSOLUTELY love the 'you are what you wear' mini plot idea. I think that is awesome. Since I was never really into Buffy, I just saw that one Halloweentown movie where that happened and they all became ghouls and vampires and goblins and such. I would love to see how people would react in circumstances like that. However, the 'your worst fears come to life' doesn't really seem to flow if their personalities were wiped. How would they know it was their worst fears since fears are typically spawned from personal experiences that make the body cringe when the mind lingers on that topic.

Do you mean fears in general? Or the little girl's fears? I'd say the little girl's would be a better character to place the fears, since they have entered her house and thus her world. As for the house: even in the girl's mind manipulated house, I'd say that's a little small of a playing ground. What if it was like a haunted cornmaze? Or you know how they have like haunted zoos or theme parks where they set up the entire thing? That was there is a large area to RP in?

Another thought, what if these fears that everyone is experiencing were just the costumed characters acting like their characters? Like a Mr. Hyde wouldn't run away from a few spiders, he'd just walk all over them and trample over people (going off of the books, not the Hollywood adaptation). Then a Zorro will want to save the day so he steps in to face the Mr. Hyde while someone dressed as Marilyn Monroe is the one being held captive by the evil Hyde and is screaming in the background? I'd say that just a personality switch to whatever they are dressed as would be quite some conflict there.

If it's set in a maze/zoo/theme park, then the little girl would be harder to find since she'd be moving around. Maybe it starts off that she was out with her mommy and daddy, she was dressed like a fairy, her mom like a queen, and her dad like Dracula, and she got scared at someone who jumped out of the bushes at her. Her powers activated and her father thought he was Dracula, so he started chasing after her mother, who was unaware she had a daughter and just ran. The little girl was left alone so she became extremely scared and affected everyone in the park with her power. Since she'd be on the move, it'd be hard to find her.

With all of the inter-character interactions, some characters would recognize eachother, they wouldn't know how, but they would and they would start to remember. I think it'd be funny if someone dressed as Mother Theresa found the little fairy and tried to help her, hehehehe. Anyways, those are my thoughts.

All your points actually make a lot of sense Ahorta. My original idea was to for this to be a haunted house of someone important so it would take place in a mansion or so, but your right, if this were set up in some theme park or some such, there would be a bigger world for them to explore and would yield for insteresting ideas. We could set up the whole thing in Central Park. That way there can be like areas for carnival rides, mazes, all those kinds of stuff. I believe your right also, Ahorta, on the point that the costumes alone would stir up a lot of conflict in itself, but we do need someone who is unaffected. Maybe somebody could show up without a costume, as was suggested before, so that when their personality is wiped, they looked down and automatically get their persona returned. That person could serve as the reason as to why they want to restore things.

Also, I giggle at myself, because I imagine that not only would they become their personas, but everything else they witness should be altered to an almost Don Quixote way. Like a dragon rollercoster could appear as a real dragon to these people, and any vehicles with monster faces painted on their hoods would appear as real monsters. Again these are just thoughts!

*plots to have at least one NPC, if no one claims it, to dress up as Darth Vader!* >