Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board semi-official LMB Comic writing thread! - now with added crunch -

I'm always on board!

I agree this one was really accessible which made it tons of fun. I really don't like when we editorialize too much, and while there was some of that, most of the entire roleplay was pretty smooth and easy to jump into.

-heh-
You guys all write faster than I do. You have no idea how many times I edited everything out of a post and rewrote it on the fly because somebody had posted before I got mine in.
That always makes it interesting.

Gawd, that happened to me constantly, YK!!! Mostly editing to acknowledge posts that happened in the interim! Even then, I dropped the ball a few times!

The level of participation in this one (can we officially call this s.o.b. "Thyme Crime", btw?!?! ) felt stronger than the previous two I'd been party to: "INVASION!" and "Five Faces of Death". Both of those were great, btw, but this one felt less editorialized and more spontaneous, IMO.

It was cool and unexpected how my decision to have Clive just kinda go nuts with power when Exnihil (I believe) had the audacity (in Clive's view) to suggest that another election was way overdue! In the mini-roleplays that have sprouted between FFoD and Thyme Crime, I've set up that this "Virgin Lad" might not be playing with a full deck. And the idea had been percolating in my head that maybe Clive was the in-continuity reason the elections had been held off for so long. (In reality I think there was just an MMB doldrums that nurtured a kind of *meh* attitude about another election.)

So the Clive thing was unplanned, though not unthought of, and it really just sparked an interest in many posters starting to react in-character! And somehow, it ballooned into a full-fledged roleplay!

It was funny, though, because no one had any idea where the thing would go when it started. Basically, everyone who'd had subplots percolating for awhile just decided to jump in and work those storylines into what was happening somehow.

But the big spark in giving this thing some sort of identity was Exnihil coming out and injecting the malaise over what had happened at the end of the Threeboot into a few plot platforms that eventually helped things shape up. I actually have no idea if Cobalt knew who shot his character when he wrote that scene! Did you, Des?

But from that point "Justin Thyme" became our antagonist and figuring out who that could be and how that tied into everything that was happening was a lot of fun!

Cheers to everyone for a job well done! This was the best, most coherent collaborative effort involving the largest group of posters since I've been here in my view!

That's so true. The PMs were flying backstage. I thought the LLPrime story was going to dominate and then the Time Travel theme hit and it was ON.

I laughed when Justin Thyme became the antagonist. I wonder sometimes if Didio knows that we portray him as a villain? Even Rob got more respect.

Oh, and just so you n00bs will know, DARK LARD was NOT a new concept I created for this roleplay! I wrote two-thirds of a planned trilogy of ONEVISIONS set in the LMB's version of the Legions "5 Years Later" storyline. The third part of the trilogy was to be called "Reign of the Dark Lard" and explore the LMB facing its biggest threat ever: an insanely powerful and evil Lard Lad.

I've often looked at DARK LARD as being Lardy's very real future and have written him in roleplays and ONEVISIONS with that foreshadowing in mind.

However, "Reign" may never get written and may never come to pass, so I decided to bring him into this roleplay to explore the character and use him to interact with the others. Will Lardy ever become DARK LARD? That remains to be seen, but where Lardy is at the conclusion of Thyme Crime seems to be sending him in a brighter direction than he has been in several years. So things are more hopeful than ever!

From my perspective, I really wanted to get some of the long-standing plot threads that had been going on for like a year all settled and done. Honestly, I wanted the Lardy/Cobie friendship restored, I wanted Cobie back in the LMB and running the Security Office now that Space Ranger was back, and I wanted to take the Jailbait Lass/Cobalt Kid potential romance to a new place (that one still pending ). So when I saw Clive going a little crazy, I knew maybe we could take this to the next level with some heightened drama. So I had Cobalt Kid get shot and that was that--I had no idea who'd done it. But I knew with Legion World, someone would take credit pretty quick.

It also let me use other Alt IDs rather than Cobalt, which I always try to do for a little while during roleplays. I actually didn't use that many this time, less than usual.

I had the basic premise of "The Traveler" being the villain. Really just the name. Then Ex entered the scene with "The Second Shooter" and "Justin Thyme" using the recent end of the threeboot and it really began to take shape. So I started to PM Ex about some ideas for it.

At the same time I wanted to add in a vibe from "Lost" and the awesomeness going on there. I came up with the idea to tie in Cobalt's assassination to Lardy's accusations that Cobalt tried to kill him, and also to the fact that I had replaced the Liberty Monkey alt ID with Tomahawk (more on that in a second). So we came up with the idea of "Justin Thyme"/Traveler using space/time to switch places with people's conscious and move through time and space. It also allowed for a great explanation of why sometimes people change their alt IDs (via the natural powers of the island). What is so cool is that this tied directly into all of the storylines Abin was using for the House of Quank, and suddenly he had a great avenue to conclude the stories for Pagan & Stoopid Cat's return, Gary Concord's final hurrah, and My Wee Fem.

And then Ex just started really nailing it. We decided he'd be "The Traveler" (aka Phineas using his body) and his attack on Jailbait Lass, Tomahawk and Shark Lad was awesome. We started coming up with ideas of who the villain would be and I thought Phineas B. Fuddle would be a perfect choice. This also helped Abin's story through the 'STU' connection (Pagan Lass and Stoopid Cat are heavily tied in with Stu, and Phineas has a long connection to Stu since he was once "Dark Stu"). Ex did such a damn good job as the Traveler that I wanted him to take on the Alt ID of Phineas rather than me or a poster who'd done it before. 'Cuz it gets old battling the same guys He did so well that I didn't even make one post with Phineas.

For the Alt ID, I decided it was time to retire the Liberty Monkey / Tomahawk account. Basically I liked Liberty Monkey but had gotten tired of the character. I liked the Tomahawk avatar and had been looking at old Tomahawk covers lately and switched about a year ago. But after a year of that, I was board with Tomahawk too. And by then I think too many people knew or suspected it was me and whenever that happens I always try to trade alts. (RE: in case you didn't know, many of us have traded alts before to throw people off; we're sneaky like that). I'd given away two alt IDs last year anyway, so I decided I'd retire Liberty Monkey/Tomahawk and we could use him for Phineas. And the cover with the monkey with Tomahawk inspired me to have their epilogue.

Once Ex started using 'the Traveler' as himself and then providing the basis for Phineas' plot, it all just pulled together. We worked in Abin's stories, and then Sharky and YK just ran with it and added their own layers. Lardy and I tied up a ton of loose ends and others jumped in--Kent joining in at the end actually worked really well in the story context. Plus there's the fun of posters being a part of the story for even a brief section, like Matlock, FC, Quis and of course, the most beloved poster of all time, Lash.

Pretty groovy, if I do say. I really loved Invasion, but Five Faces of Death actually kind of wore me down. Probably my favorite one we ever did was "The Good, the Dark and the Dead", though Dark Stu was a close second. Infinite Crisis was another one that really wore me down though I liked some parts. This one ranks pretty high up there, probably alongside Dark Stu.

Ps - Name? "Remember Tomorrow"?

Arrrggghhh!!! "Thyme Crime", DAMMIT!!!

Another funny thing about all this is that when I brought Lardy back from the dead and decided to have him accuse Cobalt of killing him to create some tension, I HAD NO IDEA where that was going!!! The intent was just to create something that might lead to more stories. I think it worked out well and made the Cobie/Lardy reunion (after they'd been at odds off and on--but mostly on) for years all the sweeter!

I hope people read my post on the epilogue for the full explanation on Lardy's resurrection and the whole Clive thing. It's pretty damn complicated but ties everything together nicely, I think!

Names!


Truth and Justice shall Prevail!
(Which one of you is gonna argue with Pagan?)

Seeing how the Quank family's storylines played out from pre-FFoD thru Thyme Crime makes me wonder how far Chuck's plans went from what he had planned for Collateral Damage (an unfinished multi-vision he worked on with some of us) and beyond? Care to share, Chuck?

Wow.
This is the first time I can remember doing a "Behind the scenes DVD Extra" for a tag team thread. It's kind of cool to see what motivated the writers to move the characters through their motions.

I got to re-invent something I'd un-invented years ago - aka the Clubhouse and I also got to play with a Atom-like character instead of a Colossal Boy type and while doiong that I even got to invent a new justification/concept for a Daxamite power level: Zero-Point Super Strength. Maybe if Micro-Man shrinks even smaller he'll gain other powers?..a concept that might need exploration some day.

The survivalists that live and ply their trade in the swamp are here to stay, I liked them too much to get rid of them although they have to have a new reason to exist. Maybe the Green Extreme team will be eco-radicals or something. Whatever though, they're available as plot devices or foils or just plain old cannon fodder in yet one more niche of LW.

All in all it was a pretty creative tale. I really loved it being separated into complete stories that were all integral to the big story. Very DC-like in this day and age.

'Bout damn THYME we had some DVD extras, I'd say! If I were doing the commentary, I'd marvel at how surprised I was that Des didn't pick up on the clues as to who Lard Lad Prime really was! This was only the second time I'd stumped him (with Wyandotte in Omnia), and this time it involved a character and storyline we'd devoted CONSIDERABLE PM space to developing a few years ago! At one point, Des and I were going to co-write "Reign of the Dark Lard" together, but we got too interested in developing stories set in the LMB's present. "Reign" may or may not ever happen, but no one was as positioned to know who LLP was than Des--but he TOTALLY whiffed it! Advantage: Lardy!

Actually I've still got several story lines for the Quank Clan and the Security Office percolating in the back of my head... Along with the Slim's Revenge Story that kind of got lost in the shuffle during FFoD.

But basically this time I wanted to restore Pagan Lass and Stoopid Cat to their rightful places in the Quank Family and I wanted to intro the Banned'em Zone. An Idea I freely admit I stole from STU's old sig lines. "Once in a STU Moon STU returns from the Banned'em zone to wreak havok" or something like that. I'd see his sig and wonder what he was doing when he was there. The first thing that came to mind for the Banned'em zone was that it would be populated by reprints of The Picture that shall not be named. the second we won't discuss, it was that bad, and the third was the evil doppelganger idea, at which point I began wondering who's doppelganger would be the most powerful... Obviously it was Nighty... and we go from there.

I also wanted to play around with a couple of Characters who've been around for a while, Numb-Nuts the Semi-Incomprehensible (From the Ongoing Tag Team Thread) and Gladys the Sentient Disco Ball, who for some odd reason speaks in my head with a British accent.

But in the end restoring Pagan and Stoopid was all I started out to do... Turning My Whee Fem into a Cack just sort of happened...

I still wonder what twists and turns the Gary Concord story might have taken from your original ideas, Chuck. I remember the LVMBP thing and see how things ended up and wonder if things changed a lot in your mind for Gary between then and how it ended up.

YK, I'm interested in learning where your side-story in Bits was going before you decided to paint it over and discard it because you somehow found it redundant? Your PCG characters are certainly quirky and full of potential I'd like to see explored further!

Who says Gary Concord's story is over? It just took a turn down a slightly different path than what was originally mapped out.

Gary is quite the complex character, he's the Cobalt Kid of an alternate reality and his version of Legion World was destroyed with him being the sole survivor. We now know that the forces that destroyed his Legion World were the Daywalker's Legions. Which is a large part of his decision to become the Guardian of the Banned'em Zone Gate. But there are still more questions to be answered about him. Like how did he survive when every other member of his LMBP died fighting the Daywalker's Legions? How did he get to our Legion World in the first place? And who were the "they" he constantly referred to when he first arrived on Legion World and why did he abruptly stop referring to them?

The bigger question is was it a huge mistake to leave him with STU's book of magic to guard our backs?

It occurred to me as I wrote the last post that none of us (Except maybe Des) really knows the full scope of the Role-Playing/Story-telling universe we've created here with our combined One Visions, Tag Teams, and MMB Role Plays.

I know I need to write entries for Crujecki's definitive directory thread, but at times I get overwhelmed just by the size of my contributions to this universe, let alone the totality of it with it's going on what 12? 15? years of history.

And more and more fantastic stuff keeps getting added... MetroMicro Man is a great example, there is a character that deserves a full time LMBP role but he wouldn't exist except for the retrograde conditions imposed by this role play.

I also have to admit that a lot of my stuff comes from me "Going Sideways" with something someone else posted. I don't think any of my characters, with the possible exception of the Space Ranger are 100% my own creation... Every one of them has developed or grown from something someone else came up with. (Cobalt, Harbinger, and EDE are the most frequent victims of my idea thefts but I've gotten ideas from virtually everyone on this board at some time or another...)

I like this post-game forensic... it's neat to see who came up with what! A few previous role plays I'd tried to participate in seemed so pre-scripted that there was no room... even though I was mostly out of the PM loop (except for a few with Exxy and Abin), this time out it really felt like the door was wide open.

Yeah, whats really nice is there wasn't too much of a PM loop though this time. Really it was setting up the Phineas account for Ex that was the majority of our PMs.

I really like the DVD commentary type stuff we've got going on.

Some other random tidbits:

- Abin let me in on Gary's true origin at least a good year and a half ago and I've always tried to play that up. Cobalt and Gary have always kind of known they were different versions of each other which is why they really hate each other.

Also, Abin I was thinking of places to go from here and I know you have Slim's grudge against Cobalt still going. When things cool down I have some ideas of where we can take that. But I have 2 or 3 things I want to do first...

- I do know LMB history really well still. I didn't see the Dark Lard coming because for whatever reason I didn't connect to the future version coming backwards in time. That's good though--I like being surprised . But a lot of time I try to do what Eryk always does best in the LMB and the real Legion, make connections so the history is one coherent narrative.

There are several things that *need* to be accomplished for a successful roleplay. (A) No one poster can dominate the story. (B) Too much editorlializing makes it difficult for other posters to enter a storyline. (C) Don't have solutions planned out in advance: rather, set up a problem with a potential idea for a solution if need be, but ulitmately let other posters solve the problems you created because it gives them a sense of inclusion. (D) New threads must constantly be created to go along with the re-use of old threads to create the sense that there is something fresh going on to encourage more people to join. (E) Lardy, Abin, myself and two or three other posters should not be the villains in an LMB roleplay for several years now (at least the major villains--supporting characters that are antagonists are certainly okay and work well within our framework, Gary Concord being the best example). There are some other good guidelines too.

I think this roleplay for the most part accomplished all that. I 've also noticed the best roleplays begin, end or encompass the LMB elections. Funny how that works out.

Also, I always try to tie in the initial threads used later during the course of the story. The GD&D Saga kind of did this by accident--returning to the Cobalt marriage storyline and EDE's Greg Evignan Island, without ever really being obvious about it (because it wasn't on purpose), which made it seem very literary correct. So thats why I had Cobalt return to his travel agency, which I basically set up as 'now what the hell is Cobie doing?' sequence when he was becoming more distant to Jailbait Lass and Lardy. Ex caught on to that too and returned to the "Over the Hills and Far Away" thread to ensure it existed for an important reason and wasn't some throw away thread. We both took a cue from Lost and helped use the secret history of Legion World as the reasonining behind these two threads in the first place.

Usually whenever I start a thread in the MMB, I have some vague ideas of potential roleplays in mind. I'm always trying to set up sneaky ways for Cobalt to get out of any situation or have some type of existing protocol or established ruling that helps explain his position (since he's always doing things that should get him in trouble). So I try to be Machavalian whenever we're not roleplaying too.

One thing I'd like to add is that SHAKES, The Security Office, Cafe Cramer, the Tesseracts, and the 85th Floor Corner office are all Primarily Role Playing Threads and should be used as such... even if it's just horsing around like a drunken party... who knows what great ideas will come out of them when we're just goofing around?

agreed. one of my best, most detailed story ideas for a comic book series (I have a 'bible' of 80+ pages detailing 100+ characters and situations) grew out of a (real-world) diner conversation: "what if the TV show Dallas had been about super-heroes?"

you never know where a good idea will grow out of.

Yeah, for one example, that's what created Gladys the Sentient Disco Ball--one night of goofy roleplay in the Security Office between myself, Cali and Dedman (maybe some others?)!

It's a little daunting and scary that Lardy's loose plot threads are now so tied up! I think my Lardyverse focus for a while will be to develop the long-simmering Dark Oval/Earth-4 thing subplot. I guess it's more likely to morph into a Onevision more than anything else, though.

When Lardy and Cobalt's meeting about the scroll takes place, that will lay out a few things...

This is an Idea Kent and I kicked around a few years ago while driving around Southern California…

Creating an actual LMBP Comic Book…

There would have to be a number of name changes and concept modifications for it to work but… Think about it…

With the talent we have on this board it’s at the least doable.

A while back some of our more talented artists, (Joe-boy and Crujectra did the most I believe) started doing original drawings of LMBP characters. (And before you break out that n00b junk again Lardy I know it was done by other artist’s before that, I just happen to think that JB has done the most extensive job of illustrating original LMBP characters and Crujectra has done the best illustrations of the Quank Family.)


I think that we could with the writers and artists on this board working together design a stable of characters and create a viable comic book universe…

The question then becomes could we create the actual book or books?

I have a feeling we could, given all the resources we have among all these posters. It would be a huge undertaking though and could get quite complicated if we were to actually attempt publication.