The Gang of Five
Role Play => Role Play Discussion => Topic started by: Kor on October 26, 2007, 06:09:25 PM
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Just wondering if anyone had an interest in running one based on Dinotopia. And what sorts of changes, if any, some may think is needed or suggested. What time period is best to set it? Also if some thing altered or tweaked versions of LBT oc or fc should be allowed, ect.
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Just a repost to see if any but the 1 person who pmed me may be interested in such an rp.
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I'm a bit interested. I had a couple fancharacters that I was developing for Dinotopia.
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I wonder if most would prefer a pure Dinotopia, or some sort of crossover. I'd also likely need help since I've not gmed before.
As I see it there are more then 1 way of doing Dinotopia:
1: Pure Dinotopia, no LBT at all.
2a: the typical Dinotopia / LBT crossover where some LBT characters visit Dinotopia & maybe vise verse
2b: The first movie (or maybe the 5th movie) started the same but by the end of the movie the LBT characters ended up in Dinotopia.
2c: The LBT characters are native to Dinotopia and were never in the lbt world at all, no Great Valley ect.
Just wondered what some would prefer, instead of dictating it has to be this way.
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I like option 2a, personally. You can count me in!
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Ohhh...so many good choices I would choose but it's like 1 in the morning here...and I have college classes at like 8:00, so to keep it fair, I'll choose my final answer tomorrow! :yes
EDIT: Okay now I've had time to think it over and I've decided that choice 2c the best...but that's just my honest opinion.
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No hurry, still some others to say their preference, and other things to discuss too.
So far one for 2a and 2c, not sure what others think. 2c may allow some other dino fc's like Dink and his friends. Just waiting to see what some others opinions are. I like doing that since then the rp can take into account what some folks want instead of dictating everything. Though there will be no magic nor powers, I don't think it fits. No dragons or elves, though some folks do put dragons into their versions of dinotopia, I don't think either one fits. Even though James Gurney insists on calling Trodons Stenonychosaurus they'll be referred to by their current name of Troodons. I over look they fact that some do point out some dino terms were not known by Arthur Dennison, but if James Gurney made up dino names for dinos not known by Arthur Dennison most would have no idea what he was talking about and even more would complain about that.
I have the James Gurney books 1-2, & 4, and the mini series on dvd, though I prefer the books over the mini series. There is some contradiction between the mini series & Gurney's books.
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Edit: Though folks will likely never see this since I'm not going to double post with the edit only a few days after the first post.
I have thought of a way to incorporate some LBT and Dink into dinotopia. Since only 2 folks voted, 1 for 2a and 1 for 2c, I thought why not merge the 2. There is a spot where some mountains meet on the dinotopia map where the great valley could be, especially if the distances are fidged. One could say the distances are not accurate and the sizes of things are not super accurate on the map. It is not to far from the rainy basin, where large carnivores (and I guess some medium size ones too) live. If the sizes of dinotpia are fidged it could fit.
As for Dink, it is easier to fit him in. What they call Hunter's Grove could be the local term for a section of the rainy basin where the carnivores live. Green meadow could be a place that borders or is very near the rainy basin area locals call hunter's grove.
Both areas could be areas where the local dinos prefer to live by the old ways, no city, no village, no tech ect, as their ancestors lived. Maybe why there are no humans living there, most humans would not like to live in a place like that. Though some may like to visit it, or a few may like living there in a place like that.
Though some adjustments would have to be made here and there, since it is a dinotopia setting. Crusty can't take off his shell as he did in one segment of dink.
Instead of everyone speaking english, I'd say the dinosaurs have a common language they call saurian, that some scholar types would call dinotopian saurian common or somesuch. Though there are many other saurian languages too. Some would know the common saurian, mainly educated dinos, some dinos would not know it, hense why protoceratops like Bix are liked and such. With some longnecks only knowing sauropod, maybe some maybe only knowing apatasaurian, fi there is a species language also.
Humans have a common language too, and a bunch of human languages too, though the common language among humans is called dinotiopian, and they likely would call the saurian common language saurian.
not sure if of the time period some would prefer.
In case some do know there, there are troodons (that James Gurney & the tv insists on calling Stenonychosaurus, which I read is an invalid term, like calling LIttlefoot a brontosaurus) and deinocychus do live in cities, 1 is the head librarian of I think waterfall city.
Official web page: http://www.dinotopia.com/ (http://www.dinotopia.com/)
official map: http://www.dinotopia.com/dinotopia-map.html (http://www.dinotopia.com/dinotopia-map.html) (has a .pdf map you can download. the online one is small & hard to see, not the pdf one though.
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Sounds good, Kor!
Can we start posting our OC's?
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Anytime you want.
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Hello:
For what I saw, you had think a lot and I find very interesting the way you can have a version of both the Great Valley and Green Meadow in Dinotopia.
The need for translators may be necessary perhaps... maybe if our characters are travelling together we may have a translator to help us in any village with another language we may visit (if we are saurians and visit a village with mostly humans, for example).
I want to get into this adventure. I need to think of a character though, but I will enter this rpg :DD .
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The only main translators I can think of are the protoceratops types.
The ideas came to me after some thinking, not to good but they are doable. Any idea what sort of char you may like? Human, saurian, something else?
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Hello:
I am still not sure, I may try to do a human and a saurian character, maybe one can be a starting character and the other may appear later as the story continues. I still need to think on background stories for any oc I may want to do :yes .
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I do have 2 human Dinotopia characters that I was developing with Malte's help. One is a paranoid dolphinback and the other is an insane zealot. I wonder how they could fit in with the RP, though.
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Chiletrec: If you are not sure of a background for a human char in Dinotopia you could always do one who washes up on the beach after being saved by dolphins. I was thinking of doing that as one of the 2 plot ideas I got a day or 2 ago, a human new to Dinotopia, called a dolphinback, being taken to Waterfall City for registration..
Paranoid dolphinback, & a religious zealot, sounds like unusual characters.
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I still have faith that this RP can work, but I'm currently at a loss as to what character I should RP as, wether a saurian or a human.
And having both the human and saurians speaking different languages is sheer brilliance. However, if I can think any plot ideas, I'll be sure to pass then along and see what everyone else thinks.
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Those were the only 2 that I had, the one I mentioned about the dolphinback needing to be taken to Waterfall City can fit in with pure Dinotopia, or a mix of characters.
Another one may be someone being given a tour of part of Dinotopia, likely maybe a younger person, so they can see more options before they choose. Maybe only a certain area, not all of Dinotopia, which could take many years. And unlike in the mini series, the person chooses themselves, not some head woman of the village. Though the only had part is becoming a Skybax Rider, which is not easy, though Skybax Riders could not really rp, unless everyone is one, since their duties prevent it. Look at how much Will adventures with his father once he becomes one, not at all.
The humans & saurias do have their own common language, as I mentioned above. But it would seem the humans with a saurian partner likely understands spoken saurian, though they can't speak it themselves (unless the saurian partner is a protoceratops, then maybe not since the protoceratops can speak human dinotopian common, or any other saurian or human language it knows. I'd guess dolphin too, at least some parts of it, not the ultrasonic frequencies I'd guess). Though this would seem to only apply to those humans who have a non protoceratops partner and have themselves born and grown up on Dinotopia.
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Hello:
Well, maybe our characters can be close friends of both species (I mean both humans and saurians) that way we will be able to understand each other while we would still need to help our friends to understand what other people may say, like a saurian of the group may help explain things to the humans of the group when talking with a saurian from certain village.
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That is certainly possible & a good idea. Not sure what the others think. I'm sure some other groups do that since it looks like every group of travelers that numbers 2 or more does not have a proteceratops who travels with them. If (like some argued on another forum I'll not name) that saurians can only speak their species language then every saurian would have to have a protoceratops partner and they clearly do not in James Gurney's books. So that idea would work since it seems to me (at least) there is a common saurian dinotopian, like there is a common human dinotopian language. Though there would be dialects and some who do not know the saurian or human common language, like in the usa there are some who do not know English, or have a hard for others to understand dialect. Though scribes help with that, with their dancing in large sand boxes so they cay write out what the speaker is saying. Scribes being only dinos with 3 toes and seem to be only 1 species. So that seems to mean at least that type can understand other saurian and can understand human lunguages, even if they can't speak any human language.
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Hello:
Those Scribes dinosaurs sound like a good idea, do you know what species they are?.
I bet in our world there may be people that can learn languages very easily, I know some work in huge meetings with people of many countries (like the UN), so there may be humans that may learn saurian languages at some point. That may make things easier perhaps.
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Usually they are not. There is just one painting where one is identified and it is a dino called an Ornithomimus, whatever those are. It is mentioned in the text where it says: "The three-toed dinosaurs are always the scribes. They're fine dancers, with good clear footprints." They are always 3 toes since the dinotopian alphabet is based on a 3 toed dino foot. They do their dancing in a sand box. They likely use ink, paper and other things as well when not at the sand box.
There are likely some dinos, and humans who have a knack for learning multiple languages. There are some humans that are that way in the real world.
Going by the James gurney books I have I've only been able to find 3 species that seem to be able to speak human lanaguages, though any sort seems able to learn to understand human languages.
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Hello:
For what I could find, the Ornithomimus was a dinosaur similar to the rainbowfaces I think, here is a link to the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithomimus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithomimus)
About Saurian species that can understand and speak the human languages, you may post their names here, that may make things easier for players wanting to play as Saurians without contradicting the books.
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It could be that some others similar in shape to the Ornithomimus can be a scribe, rainbowfaces (gallimimus) among them. troodons, deinonychus, & maybe velociraptors can't since though they may be smart enough they do not have 3 goes on the ground, with 1 of then being off the ground and having a large claw on them, a thing the deinonychus and velociraptors are famous for. Any dino with 3 toes that are on the ground could be a scribe it would seem.
As for the ones that can understand human, it seems any dino can, some do and some do not. Being able to speak a human language is something else. Unlike in the mini & tv series, where it may be annoying to have one of the main characters not able to speak English like the rest of the cast is, it would seem that troodons can't, or at least Malik can't since Bix has to translate and does for the times where Arthur & a dino speak to each other, though Arthur usually speaks to a human instead of a dino. Enit the deinonychus and head librarian doesn't talk to Arthur, his human partner does. Enit just growls once in the first and once in the 2nd book in his appearance.
Protoceratops are shown as being able to speak any human language that they know, Bix being the famous one in the books, though it seems she does not know English.
Dimorphodons may be able to speak human languages. There is never one mentioned or shown doing so, but in a painting in the book, a full page spread it mentions they can memorize messages to carry to various destinations. Since it does not say for saurians only, and it mentions a cross between a carrier pigeon and a parrot one can assume they can speak human languages. They may not be sentient but it can be extrapolated that they may be. A messenger is handier if they are sentient.
Oviraptor - there is one in the 4th book dressing Arthur and giving him lessons in Chandaran court etiquette. It does not mention Bix being present nor that she is translating so it seems that at least the feathered types can speak human languages. Though the non feathered ones may be able to also.
There are not any others specifically being capable of speaking human languages. Understanding them is a different thing.
It seems that all feathered dinosaurs are from the Chandara empire, which, untill the apparent end of the 4th book, was closed off to the rest of Dinotopia with I think only Chandara skybax riders allowed outside of the Chandara empire and no one allowed in.
My guess is he may have done this since when he made Dinotopia it was not common knowledge, or maybe even among dino experts, that many types were feathered so when it came to be common knowledge among dino experts & those who like dinos he put the feathered ones in the Chandara empire, a pretty good idea since it they were closed off till the after the 4th book explains why there were really no feathered dinos seen in the first 2 books.
I'm thinking of doing a Troodon or deinonychus as a character. I may add in a dimorphodon so the char can have someone present who can talk to humans. Or maybe do another type of dino, maybe a oviraptor.
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Hello:
That quantity of information is awesome!, I will think about this and try to think of a character to join. I wonder if Microraptors may exist there, with a human partner maybe.
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Sorry for the long posts. I dislike doing long posts and try not to.
Microraptors do exist. There is at least 1 that lives in Chandara, and that means there are likely others. It is even painted with the correct 4 wings. By the text it seems able to truly fly, instead of glide like real world microraptors did. Which is possible since once they moved to the Chandara part of Dinotopia they could have evolved to have true flight instead of gliding.
He seldom draws the smaller types of dinos, mainly focusing on painting the large ones, and the ones especially popular and famous ones, t-rex, allosaurs, the sauropods, and the like.
To bad I'm not someone famous. I could just call james on the phone and ask him some questions. :smile
I was looking over some bits of the 4th book and it seems maybe all small pterosaurs can speak human languages instead of just Dimorphodon, not sure though. If others have ideas I'm willing to listen to them.