Psychout wrote:Cybertron; a planet destroyed.
History calls it:
Heavy Metal War: First Generation.
You watched, as for millennia the Autobots and Decepticons fought a civil war that ended when Optimus Prime, making the ultimate sacrifice, hurled himself and his nemesis Megatron into the core of Cybertron, uniting it with the Matrix.
The shockwave crashed all transformer-descended life across the universe.
The Great War was ended, but the cost was huge.
This was ‘The Great Reset’
The time for the First Generation was over, thus began:
Heavy Metal War: The Organic Age
You saw Cybertron, devastated and drifting in space until struck by an alien asteroid.
From this, a new species of Transformer evolved; Efficient, smaller, just as powerful - maybe even deadlier. Heroic peacekeepers and warlike predators took the names Maximal and Predacon and war resumes for a new generation whilst the Autobots and Decepticons, reactivated as weapons of war, broke free to continue to their unending battle across Cybertron.
Now it is time for you to join that war.
Maximal, Autobot, Predacon, Decepticon; four factions fighting for Cybertron; to protect her; to bring her peace; to conquer her; to make her the seat of power in the universe. Will you choose to further Cybertron’s evolution and stop the archaic first generation tearing your planet apart or will you choose the fight to eradicate this new organic disease that has infected your home and decendants?
Chose your allegiance carefully:
Maximals; Reluctantly fighting the Predacon’s to bring order to your world, drawn deeper into conflict by the warlike ways of the ancient Autobots and Decepticons that ravaged the planet so long ago. All must be stopped if order is to survive.
Predacons; Fighting to seize control of Cybertron and purge the weak Maximal fools, to return the world it to its natural chaotic state ruled by us alone. If the ancients try to stand in our way, then they will be destroyed for none can oppose our might.
Or chose to follow the ancient path of the Autobot or Decepticon survivors, continue the great galactic war that raged across the universe, and purge the planet of all who would oppose you or threaten your freedom.
Defend or destroy, purge or protect?
Four Warring Factions
Heavy
Two Generations
Metal
One Planet
War
The strategy game that's more than meets the eye..
*edit*
The Original Plan wrote: And if someone wants to take over my idea for the Beast Wars Tourney, be my guest. It was generally well received among those I sent it to, but I'm not a writer, as I had told them, and I feel that it needs someone of at least modest skill.
The premise was taken from Pyschout's post starting off the new era, with the Beasties developing from the meteor, but since there were beast factions before that event, my idea was that the meteor was actually the beasties returning to cybertron. Rat Convoy had a good idea that was a variation, where the beasties had taken control of Cybertron and the G1ers returned, being the meteor I guess.
But, given the nature of the game, fighting between the two factions quickly spreads, focusing around Iacon. The Gen 1 factions for the tournament would be considered offline. Missions against those factions wouldn't nessicarily count, though I believe Psychout offered that they could be drones, playing off his story where the beast factions are awakening the Gen 1 factions and using them as proxy soldiers. The only downside I see to that is that it would favor the Maximals more then just counting the beast missions.
During the first day of fighting, the winning side would find the matrix in the offline corpse of (a) Prime, and the fighting would revolve around that, each day would be fighting for control of the matrix, winning faction for the day getting possession of it, and if we could, the first day would determine who had it (winning faction best performer) with each day either the matrix going to either the best of the winner or the one who managed to defeat the current holder the most for the day in the tournament missions.
For the backstory, Rat and I were discussing whether to use canon characters, or pick from people who play the game for the factions and have them be the leaders. I favor using people from the game honestly, because there are no canon characters in HMW. People might use a canon name, they may use a canon background, but I view the game as more of a original universe, with it's own unique characters. For better or worse.
The original plan was fighting for territory or something, with the matrix coming in at the end and awakening the G1ers (a stray shot hits the matrix, causing it to release a bit of it's power and bringing the offline bots back online, like in DW's G1 series), leading into part two to be run at a later time with all 4 factions fighting for the matrix.
Honestly, I think it's a pretty deceint idea, and something that could be fun to play. But I've come to the conclusion that I'm not the one to run it. As I said, I'm not a writer. It needs one in my opinion. And with the way things are going in life for me, I'm pretty much to depressed to put forth the effort, as much as I really want to see it go forward and be run.
*** Not really reediting here, but just wanted to say that I thought HMW was already a shattered glass universe? The Autobots and Maximals are typically the more blood thirsty players, while the Decepticons and Predacons are typically the more friendly, willing to help each other and defend the weak.
Keeping track of those infected with the hate plague, possessing the all spark or matrix (my idea, completely unrelated) would be simple with a modified minicon code.
Modified because you wont be buying, but taking control of the item or being infected. Then ya just tag them with a little image next to their name. The All Spark or Matrix for those in control of that, and a skull next to the infected. Of course, it would take a bit of work.
*edit*
Absolute Zero's Second Idea wrote:Oh! Idea! What if Psychout's meteor contained nanobots? It solves the problem of microbes reformmating transformers, and it directly connects to his story. The nanobots could have begun reformatting fallen warriors into beasties, and nanomachines can replicate or imitate organic flesh, depending on the source you reference, and protoforms, from what I read online (yah, real reliable I know) have a lot of nanobots in them. They build the body ontop of a base frame.
Wingspan wrote:Proposed Narrative
Part 0 - Idle Peace
I'm thinking we run a narrative that's told beginning at the moment of the Matrix waking up the G1ers and bring the moments of time up to that through dialogue of characters and flashback. The first sentence could simply be "One bad shot" and the whole tourney builds to who fired that bad shot.
"You slaggin' fools! We had resolved this nonsense on Gaea and your power hungry.."
*explosion*
"Stow it fuzzball - we were not going to be subjects again; common enemies create new opportunities now. Until we trash these resurrected zombie relics lets hold on past differences."
Enter flashback to tell story of crash, introduction to Seibs, and a time of harmony. This would also tell of the discovery of the G1 stasis locked bodies and how both sides gathered them as a joint cleanup - this could be the catalysts for the initial peace. All this is a neutral setup to drive character inclusion in remaining segments based on tournament success.
Part 1 - War Resurrection
Let's re-use the Beast Wars (Cartoon) common ground that the Predacons are unsatisfied with being controlled subjects and that it's been so long no good history accurately records why the Fuzzies have dominance over Squishes. Conflict starts simply over territory - Preds want to have a designated area (e.g. state, country), Maxs decline, Preds establish anyway, Maxs start to push - then bang.
First part of the tournament would determine which Maxs push and which Preds push back.
Part 2 - History Revealed
Time (2-3 months) has passed. Top player of winning faction for second part (note: I did ask for some periods between collecting missions; these parts are generic and just indicate that tournament happens then results dictate story) were involved in a heavy conflict (need links for their sole-survivor / nearly lost missions to incorporate other characters) and damaged. In retreating from the field they venture for cover and, in accessing data banks to setup some security while repairs are done, some history is uncovered (the fall of Prime and Megatron, the leaderless factions, and the planet wide stasis).
We could then have this told as the winning team bringing the news back to the faction along with a proposal to search out revealed areas; in one of these areas the Matrix is discovered. (Describing the depth and destruction internal to Seibertron will be a challenge but worth it - as well as the remains of the former G1 leaders). (note: I know this isn't the Matrix on Day 1 but Day 2, but it sets up better I think)
Part 3 through X - Charred Metal
Recounting conflict in segments following each tournament part - by this point contributing teams will stand out and their characters (if they provide backgrounds / participate) can drive content. If not, then we'll apply their progress to chosen canon characters which best represent how things have progressed. (To Psychout, the Midget Mod, thanks for that point; writing this to our characters will only work with larger participation)
The matrix will begin to change hands - the first time it does let's write it as the attempt to use it as a weapon (based on the data bank review mentioned previously). Then it's fighting over to try and claim it (which leads to the "One Shot" which restarts the G1ers).
During this, we can arbitrarily choose to include the G1 missions as possibly counting as the two sides enable the fallen bodies as "drones"; since the Beasts will not have any ties to either side, every mission could count. However - we do not HAVE to include the G1 missions, it's an option. Doing so will mean writing in the re-animation and controlling of the drone bodies - any volunteer Mad Scientists on either side? If a consistent losing side can be identified, we can choose them to be the initiator (out of desperation) or it could be the current matrix holder (as a reward for holding the matrix). (reminder: Only the Beasts are competing, this is more so to let a broader mission pool be selectable for entry.)
Quantity of segments is determined by how long we run the tournament.
Part X+1 - One Fated Shot
We somehow determine who gets to be the hero / moron / fated fool who activates the Matrix and re-grants life to the G1ers, breaking their drone state. Narrative picks up from the moment it first began with the bickering Max/Pred and the last segment of the tournament (where we'll do something special to include more missions and the G1 missions) will be a big blowout with massive repercussions.
Edit: We could have the One Fated Shot be the last story we write, but have another tournament segment that follows with no additional story. It will let the story close at a good climax and then let the tournament missions have their own good conclusion.
Edit 2: As this can be broken down into segments, this opens up the possibility for contribution to a much broader group - not just AZ or I - making this truly a HMW event.