Seeking Advice For a New Roleplay

[Si Long01]

Hello everyone!
I need help with a new roleplay, due to start sometime next May, and tentatively titled 'Project Tower'--all suggestions and advice are greatly appreciated. biggrin

Plot/Setting:
The roleplay takes place mostly inside an enormously tall tower that spans all dimensions. (I've yet to decide how many floors the tower has, though I've decided to add a basement with several floors.) All the players are dead, and 'awaken' on the first floor at the start of the game. (Although the characters are dead, I didn't want them to simply phase through the ceiling or the walls. Other than that, they're free to do anything, more or less.) At the top of the tower is a chance to return to life. Likely, there will be a way for all the players to return to life, but they must reach the top of the tower (this concept is still rather sketchy). Also, not all of the players' chances at life need to be an object--I'm toying with the idea of making some of the chances a revelation, or a person. A thick black fog surrounds the outside of the tower, though I haven't decided what should happen if a player chooses to jump into the fog.
If a player chooses to play as a non-human, I wanted to drastically decrease any powers they possessed when alive; for example, a mutant that could lift and carry cars when alive could lift a dresser, at best, when dead. (This was mostly to level the playing field between humans and non-humans.)
The tower is, in a way, sentient. It thrives on the presence of the dead, and seeks to keep them from leaving. The tower's 'innards' defy the laws of physics; some rooms have no gravity, others are filled with ice, some have doors that lead to other worlds, etc.

'Gameplay':
As GM, I would play the tower, always trying to prevent the players from reaching the top. The players, in turn, would fight against the tower, using the environment if necessary, and play any NPCs they created alongside their own characters. They are free to work with others, though their characters shouldn't know how many chances there are to return to life. I planned to base the success or fail of the tower's or players' actions on the dice option of Gaia posts, using one 100-sided die. Rolling less than 50 would mean that your actions failed; rolling more than (or equal to) 50 would mean that your character succeeded. Successfully beating the tower would raise your character to the next floor. Losing would send your character down a floor, and not necessarily to his or her previous room.
I'm also considering allowing players to double-post (and triple-post, quadruple-post, etc.) as long as their characters succeed in their actions. Once they fail, however, it is the NPC's/other character's/Tower's turn to reply.

So far, that's all I have. Is there anything I've missed, or something I should add?  

[Rapidity]

Okay, seems like you have a fairly flexible idea here; my perception is that anything is permitted because it could all be classed as a near-death hallucination/experience, so I get the sense of anything-goes. And yes, I acknowledge that you've said this isn't finished and polished, so I'm not intending to criticise that fact.

From what I understand, it's rather linear. I'm not sure if you're aiming for, or planning to aim for, some kind of higher metaphorical statement about death or something, I think that could begin to twist an otherwise straightforward quest if you posed more thoughtful and controversial situations on the players than "Argh! There's a gribbly walking across the room! It wants our brains!", but understand that such a thing is very prone to being cheesy and needs to be done in absolute confidence if it's going to work (I think).

For some reason this reminds me of a manga called "BLAME", which is available over on onemanga.com. (Between you and me, I'm not clear on the rules of linking to other websites on gaia, so inform me if I'm doing anything I shouldn't.) I rather liked that manga, and if this setting was going to attract me it would be because of its similarity to that. I don't think the manga bore any deep meaning, so that's an example of it working without any deep and metaphorical statement, which is what I'd personally aim to do in your shoes.

Overall, I think it's flexible, it might already be ideal for your intended audience already, but from my standpoint it lacks something that makes it stand out, that spark isn't there for me. But I'm just like that, you could be on the right track regardless.  

[Si Long01]

Thanks for your input; BLAME might be worth looking into for a little inspiration.
I hadn't planned on using the roleply as an extended metaphor--in all honesty, I'm not sure I have the skills to make that work--nor was I aiming for a specific audience. (Is that a bad idea?) Rather, I wanted it to seem like a game, though not necessarily without danger.
Most likely, anything that doesn't break Guild rules will be allowed, though I think that will be determined more by the players' actions than anything else.  

[velixsiol]

It sound very Interesting to say the least.
These may not be great Ideas and you may have already thought of them but I might as well post them:
It may be that not everyone would want a second chance.
Some might even help the tower for some reason.
What if someone already knew about the tower?  

[Si Long01]

Yes, it occured to me that some players would be content with moving around the Tower. (I think I forgot to add that.) How would I keep those players in the storyline? It would probably become boring to fight room after room with no (character) motivation--should there be an alternate storyline waiting in the wings, in the event that a player doesn't create one?
Your last two ideas are very intriguing, and something I never would have considered--probably because I see the Tower as the 'bad guy' and the players as the 'good guys'. I'm thinking that there would need to be a limit on the number of possible players with prior knowledge of the Tower.

A new question to everyone: Should the players' characters know what the situation is? (i.e. they're dead, the chance for resurrection lies at the top of the Tower, the Tower is 'alive', etc.)  

[velixsiol]

Well... Ultimately it's up to you, but...
Personally, I would let them know that they are dead (unless they decide otherwise), and that their chance for revival is at the top. But not that the tower was alive. But then, I'm a little sadistic about that sort of thing.  

[Si Long01]

The players would probably figure that out pretty quickly, given all the strange rooms and everything...
I'm most worried about any glaring loopholes in the setup; ways that someone could 'cheat' to win the game, so to speak.  

[velixsiol]

Can I ask you to clarify?  

[Rapidity]

Originally when I read this I wasn't particularly roiled up, apart from what I previously mentioned about BLAME, if you could get the mood bleak and eerie enough (Not 100% likely with varied inputs from different people.). Now that it's recently come back on my mind, it doesn't seem like that bad an idea, but as I said, linear.

So, I've got some ideas for ways in which it could be twisted and animated a bit more. Reject and accept at will, I'm just throwing around ideas that I wouldn't necessarily accept myself, so I don't mind if you don't like any of them.

1) The grim reaper (possibly a player character, possibly disguised) is opposed to the notion of anyone winning at all, and seeks to ruin the whole thing, but could cut deals with players, even if they don't realise it.
2) Have you thought about players deciding they'd rather climb up the sides of the tower? If they players can't reach the side/edge, how do they know it's really a tower? It could be based in space or something, meaning it's impossible to go outside; or a dragon with watchful eyes circles, of which the players should beware, for they are crunchy and good with ketchup.
3) The setting, is this fantasy and some kind of abstract afterlife? What about a science fiction setting where someone rich enough is able to run the whole thing as a game? That would add the game element you are looking for, plus the ability to add comments from some sinister figure running the operation.
4) There is a strong likelihood the players will work together a little too well. Why not add some sparks by limiting the number of winners that are allowed to go back to life, even if a number that exceeds that reaches the top? Or some kind of similar system.  

[Si Long01]

Rapidity

2) Have you thought about players deciding they'd rather climb up the sides of the tower?

This is a good example of a loophole. Since I hadn't thought of a way to prevent it, players could simply scale the Tower to another room--possibly even to the top floor--with no challenges save the danger of falling.  

[velixsiol]

The fog you described in your first post strikes me as a bit of a deterrent. The PCs don't know what will happen to them, and in my experience, players are fairly protective of their characters.

Rapidity makes a good point about the setting. What level of magic/technology were you going to use? It matters.  

[Rapidity]

In terms of technology, the idea struck me as one of those roleplays with indeterminate technology, which allows people to use things like guns but for swords to be something other than useless. However, this always bothered me, since I never knew whether that meant spaceships, rayguns, etc. etc. would be permitted. I hear indeterminate but what I really hear is "Whatever the game owner feels like.". If it's indeterminate anyway, I guess that's fine, but personally I'd be deterred, I'd rather it was clarified.

P.S. It sounds like you have a plan for players climbing up the side of the tower. Either that or it provides a way of saying the game is far too long to complete, and hence introduce a cheat to make it completable. Eheh, I'll stop trying to give things away anyway..  

[Si Long01]

The overall technology of the Tower is still undecided, but I had planned for technology inside the rooms to differ from room to room. If, for example, a player with a raygun walked into a room that led to a prehistoric area, the player could only use the 'technology' of that room's age until he cleared the room.

It occured to me that I may have overlooked the general atmosphere of this plan. Generally speaking, anything dealing with death tends to be somber; however, I hadn't initially intended to make such a roleplay. This was meant to be a game, a friendly yet aggressive competition held for sheer entertainment. I know from experience that I can't write solemn pieces, so this seems like a potential complication.
Am I just blowing in the wind, or does this roleplay seem a little grave (no pun intended)? And is there a way to make it less so?  

[velixsiol]

Si Long01

The overall technology of the Tower is still undecided, but I had planned for technology inside the rooms to differ from room to room. If, for example, a player with a raygun walked into a room that led to a prehistoric area, the player could only use the 'technology' of that room's age until he cleared the room.

I love it.

And yeah it does seem a little grave, but in my opinion, that's a bonus.