Why not a thriller/paranormal/mystery RP?

[Order]

I wonder if there would be any interest in a kind of mystery-thriller type story.
I'm thinking of a rehab resort (not just for addicts, but for disorders or lack of contentment) where a group of friends and strangers have agreed to an experimental treatment. They will live in rooms in a 5 star hotel on a tropical island and be subject to frequent situations which make them uncomfortable or even terrified. Combining this with the amenities of the resort, the goal is to help the guest to accept that one must enjoy what they can and leave behind hopelessness, addiction, fear and greed. I'd like to have a character as one of the guests, but I could simply "DM" the story if it is needed.
The basic format is that there will be events in the following general order, however unannounced events are common and should be expected.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Be advised!
You will be made uncomfortable and you will feel fear.

1. Breakfast with open seating tables, open discussion, minimal supervision.

2. Morning, optional golf, tennis, nature hike, group discussions.

3. Lunch with open seating tables, open discussion followed by a schedule of evening events.

4. Afternoon, open gym, spa, yoga, tai chi and similar events. Road and dune driving courses, SCUBA lessons and animal watching.

5. Dinner with assigned seats. Normally, there will be audience participation focused entertainment.

6. Evening, leisure activities primarily. Leaving the immediate paved grounds of the facility is prohibited from here until dawn.

All guests are encouraged to bring personal belongings such as clothes, sentimentally significant items and books. Arrangements can be made for accompanying guests, aid for handicapped persons and personal escorts from resort staff.
Our facility is often booked to capacity, however our goal is to ensure that our guests never feel undervalued.
Please contact our representatives if you have any questions about making a reservation or about our available accommodations or even the quality of our amenities.

You are not alone, many of our staff were once guests.

Signed,
Thomas Otteral
Director

[loaf]

I like that idea but I'd be terrible at it.

[Order]

It's not about being good or bad, it's about having fun with it.
All I expect is for people to write out what is exciting or interesting to themselves personally. I'm sure nobody on this site asks for any more than that.
Besides, I wouldn't expect everyone to post for every event or even every day (however, that would be awesome). I actually would expect most people to group up and follow similar events together which would make the task of describing scenery, or displaying the individual character's reactions much more simple.

I was thinking we could start off light and slowly dial up the pressure so the story becomes creepy and exciting naturally.

[loaf]

and I don't have fun when I re read what I just posted and I find it terrible.

[Order]

Ah,
I would suggest simply thinking up a character who you like. Most people model a character after them self which can get pretty complicated when it becomes necessary make the character make a mistake in order to add depth. Personally, I like to start with a somewhat cartoonish character by giving them a few stereotypical quarks. This makes writing from the character's perspective much easier and moves the focus of writing away from what the character should do to how the character does it.
For example,
I am considering for this story a character who is simply tired of feeling depressed and tends to become very defensive in social settings. Because he has no disorder or addiction, he automatically feels superior to the other guests and immediately offends or drives away any potential friends. Eventually, he would need to overcome this character flaw in addition to overcoming the challenges of staying at the resort in the first place.
By starting out with this idea, I can decide what I want him to look like, what his occupation would be, his hobbies and finally, a manner of speaking and body language. Having already determined all of these factors, I can use these as a set of rules for the character's behavior and with that out of the way, I can spend more time thinking about interesting writing techniques and setting up my character for future interactions.

I understand the frustration over not being satisfied with writing. There has never been a writer (professional or not) who has not felt that way. That is the motivation for trying, for developing your own style. I don't want anyone to feel like I'm twisting their arm, but I don't think you would have said anything if you weren't actually interested in participating.
For my own writing, I think of it as a constant craft to be perfected in my own way. Nothing I have written is as good as what I will write.

[loaf]

I'm sorry you can't accept the fact I do not want to do this. It's only for this type story. I posted because I said I liked the idea. I had no intention of ever making a character.

[Heartless Angel]

Little out of my usual choice of genre, but it sounds interesting. What degree of paranormality or freakishness are we talking? The synopsis thus far sounds reasonably normal, but I'm fully expecting that not everything is what it seems. I'll work on a character concept when I have more time and information.

[Order]

I would prefer if the characters are never really sure if it is all orchestrated by the resort, or if the resort is actually haunted.
But I am imagining at the most extreme the characters would experience hallucinations, being "stalked by a presence", poltergeist-ish objects, voices, self-locking doors, secret passageways which seem to disappear after use, phantom bumping and touching, feeling compelled or loss of bodily control, disappearance of guests and staff.

I mean, of course I have some plot twists in mind, but I like the idea of a more persistent paranoid feel than some cheap scares.
I would be open to more extreme stuff, though. Being drawn to demon realms or astral planes or whatever would be fine if it fit the feel of the story.

[Heartless Angel]

It seems like that sort of stuff wouldn't be very effective if we all knew we were there for an experimental therapy, it'd be too obvious that it was just a part of the attempts at treatment when weird stuff happened. Even if we couldn't really prove it, we'd all be thinking it, and that would diminish the effectiveness of the scare. What might make for a more interesting spectacle, would be us having no idea why we were there, maybe send out random shit in the mail telling us we've won a trip to this place, when the mailing list was assembled by looking through a patient list of a therapist or something to find crazies to experiment on. Just a thought, it is of course your game.

[Order]

I get what you're saying and that was actually my first thought. But the mysterious invitation thing has been done in just about every way it can be, not that it isn't a good plot.
My thinking is that the events would steadily become more intense and generate a persistent feel of paranoia. Each new day it seems more and more likely that the resort is in fact haunted and starting to break from the staff's control.
One of the plot twists I was thinking of would be the beginning of most guests truly believing that they are in danger;


-------------------------------------------SPOILER (not that anyone cares at this point...)-----------------------------------------------
One of the guests (or a small group) would eves drop on a conversation between the director and some of his staff, the conversation would reveal that the previous nights' event was not planned and not managed by the staff.
While some of the characters would insist that this simply means that some of the other guests were playing a prank on them, this same guest (or small group) would witness the director performing a sort of seance ritual in a robe and that whole creepy sha-bang. It would appear that the director is arguing with some spectral being which is not happy with him.
----------------------------------------------------------------END------------------------------------------------------------------



However, if the majority of people would prefer the resort's invitations to be exclusive and the surprise events to be completely unannounced and not advertised, I would be fine with that.

[Heartless Angel]

There are of course other options to make it a more realistic scare without going the mystery invite route, you could go the Cabin in the Woods route, and inhibit normal rational judgments with drugs in the air making it harder for us to rationalize the weirdness as a part of the test more each day, maybe have a mole in the group being treated to 'uncover' the plot, only for everyone to discover the weirdest shit was still going on, possibly a real psycho amongst the experimenters conducting his own experiments without the knowledge of the primary research team, have a few researchers mysteriously vanish, etc. All kinds of ways to deceive people.

[Order]

I like the idea of the patients being unknowingly exposed to drugs to blur the line of what is rational and what is not.
I think it would allow the writers to take a good crack at bending reality.
Also the mole patient who subtly exposes plot-keys would be cool.

Personally, I am a fan of mashing together as many potential plot-twists as possible right off the bat. It makes the timing of each twist much more natural.

So, let's say instead of being guests at a rehab center, the characters are simply vacationers who make reservations at a resort which has a perfectly legitimate history and no reason to suspect anything outside of it being the best 5-star vacation spot (I still picture this happening on a postcard-esque tropical island). The vacationers all just happened to pick the worst time possible to book their rooms.
What if the experiment to come is the first time anything like it has happened there? Maybe a private group of researchers decide to buy out the place.
They plant a mole in the group (as you suggested). I guess the mole would have to be somebody very well experienced with espionage, if the private research group has the money to buy out an entire island for a few days. Maybe an intelligence agent who just wants to take a vacation, mess with some people's heads and make some cash on the side...
There could accidentally be a genuine psychopath in the group, maybe something similar to the character Dexter...
Possibly a wannabe paranormal investigator, or at least a devoted believer. However, I would probably want that particular character to be demon-fodder.

I think that would eliminate the possibility of the characters brushing off potentially shocking scenes. It would also generate an inherently unstable character dynamic, justifying things like small cliques developing or (warning, cliche) individual characters ditching the group.

Another point I was considering is that most paranormal stories have absolutely terrible endings. I mean, in most movies the survivor(s) remain wimpy, shivering, useless asshats. I would like for these characters to eventually accept the inevitability of their own deaths and go to extremes to survive. Kind of like Evil Dead.
Everyone likes Ash, everyone likes Harry Mason, everyone likes Chris Redfield. The reason why is because they eventually grabbed up their guts, picked up that hatchet and did the damn thing.

[Heartless Angel]

Then of course there's the goal of the experiment to consider. Perhaps a series of invites, or a contest deliberately choosing people with desired psych profiles, with the rest of the unfortunate guests serving as nothing more than a control group. Or there's the Haunting of Hillhouse route, they know they're there for a psychological experiment, however they believe it's regarding their insomnia, when actually the doctor is conducting a study on fear. Of course it turns out that that particular house is ACTUALLY haunted...

The mole is a useful character in many ways. In addition to being aware of the experiment and being able to set up scares in the midst of the experiment, expose things in accordance with the experimental plans, he could bring up ideas in the group to lead their drugged minds to jump to a desired conclusion. He could effectively plant the terrible ideas the guests would have.

[Order]

Huh, does Haunting of Hillhouse == House on Haunted Hill?
I know the latter was a remake of an older film which I never saw. I remember really liking that movie when it came out, but that was a long time ago now, it may have simply been good compared to the garbage that was standard at the time. I should watch that again.

Anyway,
I'm not sure what I would want the intent of the experiment to be. I have a couple of ideas, but nothing solid.
The purpose could be to discover the general line past which most people begin to develop trauma-related disorders.
It could be to double-cross their mole/agent into revealing the location of an HVT he helped go into hiding.
It could be that the research group is being funded by an eccentric billionaire with nothing better to do than go out of his way to scare some people.

I'm not sure...

I would like to see the experiment get out of hand. I'm thinking that maybe the history of this particular tropical island involves a Spanish stronghold for silver and gold which was raided by privateers. Women, children, the whole structure and all soldiers wiped out before a storm blew through and trapped the privateers on the island where they all eventually died as well. Maybe the group or the researchers stir up the pain, anger and fear of these spirits unwittingly.

[Heartless Angel]

Nope, haunting of hillhouse is an old novel, like 1956 I wanna say. It was adapted for a movie sometime in the last decade, but is unrelated to the two film adaptations of the house on haunted hill Basically, scientist wants to conduct a study on the nature of fear, and who better to scare than the sleep deprived? So he advertises it as a study on insomniacs to get a bunch of sleep deprived people into this creepy old house, well he tries to **** with em a little for his experiment, but the place actually IS haunted by some crazy dude who ran a sweatshop with a bunch of little kids working it, and his vengeful asshole spirit wanted one of the experimental subjects there (note, this ghost is the one that called this particular subject and asked her to come, as far as the doctor knew she was a volunteer who read his ad in the paper) because she was the child of one of the kids who escaped from him and blah blah blah.

I think it should go beyond just testing a breaking point, maybe seeing at what point fear is enough to make somebody REALLY lose it, like to the point of killing everyone. Maybe trying to discover the extent to which fear can be used to control people, like the researchers setting goals of things to get somebody to do by scaring them in just the right ways.

A vengeful psychopath is always a fun character to implement, maybe this isn't the first batch of subjects they've done this too, maybe one they thought had died was hiding out and is now trying to scare the researchers. Maybe kill them. Maybe he's so far gone he no longer knows WHAT he wants to do. Maybe he's even escaped and joined the research team with the intent of getting back at the rest of the group.

[Order]

Ah, I never read the book but I think I get the angle.
So, considering what you suggest, the whole resort could be a front. It runs legitimately most of the time until the slow season every year. Actually, the slow season for a tropical island resort would be hurricane season, so that would work out pretty perfectly.
These researchers have a well-practiced method and are attempting to push the subjects into complete insanity where they are incapable of making rational decisions.
This lone survivor could be entirely indiscriminate, insane, but not stupid. He wants to torment others as he has been tormented. I guess, evil for the sake of being evil.

It might be difficult to tailor the researcher's experiments to control their subjects. From a writing stand point it would me easier to make their objective to simply document the method of inducing fear and the result in order to create a specific formula which can be applied in any setting to drive a person or group insane.
I mean, if anyone were motivated enough and smart enough to come up with a convincing sequence of events which are both terrifying and would believably cause someone to act a certain way which they wouldn't have, I'd be all about going for it. Unfortunately, I'm not coming up with anything and I don't know if I could. Maybe I'm over-complicating it.


So, what we have so far is:

A group of researchers are trying to completely break the subject's minds (to control them, to reverse-engineer traumatic disorders, for laughs)

They use some type of plant to steer the subjects in the right direction and ensure they don't figure out the truth.

There just so happens to be a subject from a previous experiment still hiding somewhere on the island.

Some of the guests are intentionally chosen based on a history of psychological problems, some are meant to be used as a control.

The subjects are tormented, driven to extremes.

The forgotten subject begins messing with the researchers.

If it works for the plot, this is where any real paranormal stuff would have to begin.

The experiment gets out of control.

North Korea joins the world economy, adopts the euro.

China invades taiwan.

The sun implodes and mankind takes to space to colonize new planets.

Not bad for a template.

[Heartless Angel]

Ah, I never read the book but I think I get the angle.
So, considering what you suggest, the whole resort could be a front. It runs legitimately most of the time until the slow season every year. Actually, the slow season for a tropical island resort would be hurricane season, so that would work out pretty perfectly.
These researchers have a well-practiced method and are attempting to push the subjects into complete insanity where they are incapable of making rational decisions.
This lone survivor could be entirely indiscriminate, insane, but not stupid. He wants to torment others as he has been tormented. I guess, evil for the sake of being evil.

I'm thinking maybe the survivor is seeking retribution, but has lost his mind to paranoia so entirely that he no longer knows who is and is not a part of the conspiracy. Everyone seems like a part of the plan, so he punishes everyone.

It might be difficult to tailor the researcher's experiments to control their subjects. From a writing stand point it would me easier to make their objective to simply document the method of inducing fear and the result in order to create a specific formula which can be applied in any setting to drive a person or group insane.
I mean, if anyone were motivated enough and smart enough to come up with a convincing sequence of events which are both terrifying and would believably cause someone to act a certain way which they wouldn't have, I'd be all about going for it. Unfortunately, I'm not coming up with anything and I don't know if I could. Maybe I'm over-complicating it.

That could be another useful role for the mole, perhaps they're trying different angles of driving people mad to see who ends up most susceptible to suggestion and manipulation, the mole would serve as the provider of that suggestion. The mole could be a psychiatrist himself, maybe even the guy in charge of the entire experiment, understanding the weaknesses of the human mind, and testing the effects of his procedures on making people susceptible to manipulation. As for a motivation, maybe he's trying to prove that free will doesn't exist, and that by controlling the right variables, he can control anyone. That gives it a real scientific angle, as well as a sort of playing God mentality for the researcher.

[Order]

Having the survivor target everyone out of belief that they are part of the plot against him/her. They'd have to be trapped in their own world, reliving the experiments performed on them. Living like a rabid animal, basically.
I could definitely see the head researcher being the mole. Everyone likes a creepy doctor-type villain and it worked really well in Clue.

But you conveniently ignored my gritty war drama transition into a sci-fi ending. I don't think I'm willing to compromise on that.

[Heartless Angel]

I just didn't have any ideas for that, I'll leave the actual paranormal shit to you lol.

[Order]

Meh, probably doesn't matter what I think. This just isn't an RP forum anymore (and hasn't been since 2001) which is a shame, because there -were- some really fun ones...
I don't have the motivation to keep active on an RP with less than a handful of people like "Cold Hard Cash". However much fun that was to write, I had to rack my brain for interesting plot points every week because the other two were too lazy to think forward.
The fun of it used to be the "Ouija Board Effect" where many writers pushed in whatever direction they wanted and the story (if well written) would take plenty of interesting turns.

I mean, I like this plot. I would like to co-write. I have several specific characters in mind that could be taken up by just about anyone,
but just like everyone else on here, "I want to, but I don't have the motivation."
This section doesn't get the same kind of attention it did, few people ever express interest in an idea and a fraction of those would actually commit to writing once every week or two.

[Rowan]

Id take part in an RP, its just as you say Order, noone wants to participate =/

[loaf]

In all honesty I have more fun just talking to someone what I plan on doing with a character in an RP. I've told my friends about my character(s) in The Numb3rs and Divided and it was just so much fun being like. So like when he did this I planned on him doing this and that. When that happened this happened, etc etc.

Yes nobody has the motivation and dedication here anymore. Me included, I'm stuck on it for maybe a month max and then I just forget about it half the time.

[Order]

Id take part in an RP, its just as you say Order, noone wants to participate =/

I'll tell you what would help is if there were a bunch of dumbasses all over this place making stupid RPs that go on for 1000+ posts about crap that is so poorly written and cliche at an average reader would feel embarrassed FOR them.
For two reasons,
1. Increase the volume of posts which increases the amount of attention.
2. Elitism in that those who have been members for longer form cliques, attempt to "show em how it's done" and magnify interest by creating invite only threads and eventually join open RPs, increasing the quality of writing overall and finally, motivation is born.

In all honesty I have more fun just talking to someone what I plan on doing with a character in an RP. I've told my friends about my character(s) in The Numb3rs and Divided and it was just so much fun being like. So like when he did this I planned on him doing this and that. When that happened this happened, etc etc.

Yes nobody has the motivation and dedication here anymore. Me included, I'm stuck on it for maybe a month max and then I just forget about it half the time.

I get what you mean. It's very similar to describing the plot of an unwritten novel or one in progress. You can visualize it like a memory.


I got an idea,
Let's make an RP about not having the energy or interest to RP.
We'll call it, "Ohhh.... I loooooooove chocolate, but I can't eat it or I'll get FAT, but I looooooooove chocolate".

[loaf]

I got an idea,
Let's make an RP about not having the energy or interest to RP.
We'll call it, "Ohhh.... I loooooooove chocolate, but I can't eat it or I'll get FAT, but I looooooooove chocolate".

Sorry Order, I don't want to RP as a female.

[Order]

>.<
That was EFFING Brian from EFFING Family Guy!
Besides, why wouldn't you want to RP as a female?
I would RP the hell out of a female.

[Rowan]

>.<
That was EFFING Brian from EFFING Family Guy!
Besides, why wouldn't you want to RP as a female?
I would RP the hell out of a female.

Id feel gay. Dont know why. Just would.

[Order]

Id feel gay. Dont know why. Just would.

Said the guy who has a chick as his avatar...

It's easy, check it out:

The noise of the small jet's engines, which had been a dull rumble while inside, now rattled Female Order's ears. As she descended the ramp onto the flightline, Female Order narrowed her blue eyes at the baggage handlers. One of the men nodded as if he understood the unspoken concern for her pink luggage. Female Order looked up and sighed with relief, only to immidately have her breath taken back by the tropical paradise which filled the horizon before her.
"This resort is absolutely beautiful!" Female Order said as she made her way across the tarmac. "I can't wait to hit the beach and get a tan!" Is exactly what Female Order said as she simultainiously thought to herself, "I can't wait to get these giant TITTAYES properly ogled up and reserve myself several servings of PAYNUSS!"


See, easy.

[Rowan]

Said the guy who has a chick as his avatar...

It's easy, check it out:

The noise of the small jet's engines, which had been a dull rumble while inside, now rattled Female Order's ears. As she descended the ramp onto the flightline, Female Order narrowed her blue eyes at the baggage handlers. One of the men nodded as if he understood the unspoken concern for her pink luggage. Female Order looked up and sighed with relief, only to immidately have her breath taken back by the tropical paradise which filled the horizon before her.
"This resort is absolutely beautiful!" Female Order said as she made her way across the tarmac. "I can't wait to hit the beach and get a tan!" Is exactly what Female Order said as she simultainiously thought to herself, "I can't wait to get these giant TITTAYES properly ogled up and reserve myself several servings of PAYNUSS!"


See, easy.

I stand.

corrected.

[Heartless Angel]

I RP chicks all the time, nothing unusual. Last time I played a DnD campaign I was an elf assassin who screwed everything with legs for information or loot. Or for the lulz. Or to get people to let their guard down while I slashed their throats... Screwed one of the other players who was a chick RPing a dude... pretty much anything is tolerable in a roleplaying environment as long as it in some way enhances the story.

[Rowan]

Screwed one of the other players who was a chick RPing a dude...

This is what I was talking about. I cant pretend to be a girl going into detail about having sex with a guy. Thats just me though.