User blog:Psychomantis108/Project Tharn: The Elder Scrolls 1: Arena RP

So, I think that I might have mentioned this concept before but I haven't actually tried to put it into fruition but I've recently been working towards this idea.

Though most people have played the most recent TES games, like Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, few have been able to experience TES 1/2. Though the games are free, they're a pain in the ass to install and boot up, especially if you have limited or no experience with DoS emulators and if you do manage to play code monkey for about an hour, you're rewarded with a rather difficult to use interface.

Granted, you can get used to it, I did but I doubt that many would want or even be able to invest so many hours, just getting to the first town and the younger a person is, the more likely this is to be true.

This is why I feel like an RP telling Arena's story and providing its experience would work really well. With project Tharn (I doubt that I'll be calling it 'Arena' since the title is... Well it makes no sense), I plan to recreate the TES Arena experience or try to in an RP.

Not only does this give people who haven't experienced the game a way to do so but it'll also give people who have experienced it a much more up to date version of the game, with updated lore.

How it'll work
=Characters= I've considered multiple routes to go down, as far as player involvement goes and I decided that the best way to do this would be to have the heroes accompany the default Eternal Champion (Talin) and serve as his companions.

The reason for choosing this route is that it eliminates the possibility of dropouts killing the RP. With a central character, we don't need to rely on any other user than the GM/Co GMs and let's face it, if they ditch the story, then it's pretty much game over anyway.

This also means that the player characters are and aren't the Eternal Champion, they follow him and share his role but it overall means that there is no chosen one player character, which I like more in an RP.

=Timespan=

TES 1: Arena takes place over the course of ten years, so it'll be important to make note of that as you make your character, so that they may adapt and evolve accordingly. I plan to split the parts into chapters, kind of like Aubeanic Reign (Which had approximately five parts in a chapter) and I'm assuming that there will be ten chapters in total. (Nine for each province and one where they escape the dungeon)

Each Chapter will take place in a different province, over the course of ten years as they gather the pieces of the Staff of Chaos and assemble them back together.

=Story=

The Story will follow the original TES game, with the exception of some minor tweaks. The overall plot and characters will stay the same, though some things maybe changed in the transition between video game and RP and there are some things about the main plot that I wish to improve, mainly the 'seduction' part of the plot, which I think could've been handled better.

=Lore=

I'm not exactly a lore nut, hell I had spend hours just figuring out the plot to this game but as far as the game's lore goes, some things will be changed. These will mostly be aesthetic changes, like the Imperial Palace, which will retain it's TES:IV appearance, rather than...

This...

I do plan on keeping the interesting monsters, like the lizard men, the gorgans, the harpys etc, since I think that they give the game it's unique edge and I'm down with anyone using items or schools of magic that are unique to this game. You needn't be a lore nut to fit in though.

=subplots and interaction=

I'm always very happy for people to contribute their own subplots to an RP, for too many reasons to count. My only request is that people are mindful of the time period and that they refrain from hijacking the plot. (by this I mean, don't do a complete 180 and change the story around)

The goal of this RP is to be TES 1: Arena, if you'd like to make your own spin on that game, with a 'what if scenario' that's fine but I'd prefer that, that was it's own project.

Also, as much as I'm a fan of dark themes, try not to turn the story into a rape/torture simulator. Trust me, that's not a good road to go down, especially when that kind of stuff doesn't serve the plot. It's just not an environment that I'd like be trapped in again...

I actively encourage people to come up with their own subplots, I'll even help you intergrade them into the story, provided that you give me enough of a heads up.

The game will mostly follow the original game's course, meaning that it will be a companionship/dungeon crawler RP.

=canon= I imagine that some people are going to be asking: Which canon will this fall under? Or will it be it's own?

Well, one of the things that I'm looking forward to in this project, is that I can see this being a sort of jumping off point for most canons. Unless your RP canon timeline has an alternative take on the third era, then this RP could easily fit into it.

I'm more than happy to have characters and minor plot details from other RPs, provided that they aren't too intrusive.

No... Flying air cities or Dwemer airships or... God forbid, carpet salesmen.

Ideally this will be so base game that it could fit into any of this wiki's canons.

=Questions=

Well, if you haven't gotten bored and wandered off to check your facebook, you're probably at least a tenth as excited about this as I am.

Bare in mind, I'm not planning on starting this until some time in May, so if you have any questions or you have anything to point out, add, suggest or throw at the project, please feel free to do so.

Also, feel free to leave a message on my talk page, if you wish to be a little more discrete with your suggestion: Queen Psycho of LON (talk) 10:45, April 29, 2015 (UTC)