LAST SHIP SAILING ROUND III - FIRST MONTH UPDATE
written by Spearmint < PM: >
LSS Round III started on May 27th, 2024, and the ships have already written over 338,884 collective words. That's over 6.77 NaNo novels, and it's more than the total word count of all the ships before Tsunami in LSS Round II. Suffice it to say that this round has been full of RPing enthusiasm!
Now that it's been a month since the start of LSS, I thought I'd take the opportunity to give blurbs for each of the ships' stories and interview some LSSers.
Eight ships signed up for LSS: Before the Wave Breaks (crewed by @Carina, @SilverNight, @urbanhart, and @soundofmind), Sailing With Strangers (crewed by @TheMythMaster, @LadyMysterio, @Omni, @APoltergeist, and @Kococo*ko), Voyage of the Starry Seas (crewed by @WeepingWisteria, @KateHardy, @Ley, @herbalhour, and @Spearmint), Dungeons and Detectives (crewed by @Plume, @RavenAkuma, @yoshi, @RangerofIthilien, and @Tambo), Once Upon A Time (crewed by @EllieMae, @JazzElectrobass, @LuminescentAnt, @Inferno, and @AmayaStatham), Above A Red Moon (crewed by @ScarlettFire, @RazorSharpPencil, and @22Midnight), Everywhere in a Toy Store (crewed by @OrabellaAvenue and @LucidNightmare), and Total Party Kill (crewed by @Griffinkeeper, @Snoink, @Book, @TheGolux, and @Ichthys).
Each ship has a unique, exciting story to share! Here are blurbs (some of which are paraphrased from their roleplay's introductory post) for each of them:
Before the Wave Breaks
Features: vibrant worldbuilding, three-dimensional characters, and magic intertwined with politics and underground dealings.
Welcome to Ruddlan.
Over the past twenty years, Ruddlan exploded from a small river town to a trade center for every kingdom. People are constantly coming in and out of her doors; for business, pleasure, or just passing through. In the past five years, Ruddlan's become best known for the Griffin Games, which it hosts annually as a series of fights between mystical griffins - climaxing at a faceoff between the two finalists.
And here, we find ourselves at another turn of the season. Within a week, citizens of Ruddlan will be hosting a week-long festival welcoming in the summer. The world-renowned Griffin Games will kick off at the end of the festival. You don't want to miss it!
With warmth and cheer, Ruddlan welcomes you for the sunniest time of year.
Sailing With Strangers
Features: swashbuckling adventures on the high seas, clever pirates, and three primordial forces humming in the background.
You are a scallywag of some sort, under the rule of one of the Five Pirate Lords, those who are beneath the supreme reign of the Pirate Queen. At the decennial Pirate Creed, the ceremonious occasion where the Pirate Monarch recruits a new Keeper of the Creed, you meet Captain Saratoga, who hires you to help crew his smuggling ship.
You are with him, and the rest of the crew, when you find yourself at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the middle of the Pirate Creed, the Pirate Queen is murdered, and all the while you were underneath the place where it happened.
You now find yourself on the run from the very folks you once called family, stuck with a group of strangers who all could be suspect for the murder you were framed for.
Perhaps the only way to freedom is to join the hunt. Are you up for the bounty, pirate?
Voyage of the Starry Seas
Features: a quest to discover the truth of the world, complex character relationships and gayness, and chaotic dreams.
For thousands of years, all recorded humans lived on the Twelve Ships of the Zodiacs, looking to the stars for guidance and power. But when the leader Pisces finds something strange in the deep, the ships are forced to question if they’re really alone, or if the abandoned lands of the Earth aren't as they seem.
Now, it's up to one group to discover the truth about humanity. Are there potential allies past the horizon or only enemies in store?
Dungeons and Detectives
Features: supernatural happenings, strangers to reluctant allies, and ghosts and other mysterious entities.
There is a particular house on a particular block. In this particular place, an elderly resident has died within the past month, and now neighbors have been reporting the sight of eerie occurrences. A photographer from the local paper, a paranormal investigator, siblings chasing their ghost-hunting mother, and a chronically-traveling historian converge on this house at the same time. What is that small figure lurking in the corners? And what exactly is there to find in this house?
It's time to find out what's really lurking in the dark...
Once Upon A Time
Features: familiar and new characters from a land of fairytales, a rhyming prophecy, and quests in a magical world.
Once upon a time... in a land far, far away... fairytales and magic are real. In the Grimm Kingdom, fairytale creatures and characters exist together, peacefully, until an evil curse strikes the land. All fairytale life will end unless four chosen individuals from different backgrounds come together, each contributing a magical item that holds the power to save the entire fairytale species. And so here begins our story, a story of friendship, courage, battles, quests, and heroes!
Above A Red Moon
Features: Star Wars shenanigans, a mysterious summoning by the Force, and a well-established world for you to let your unique characters loose in. (That's right! This ghost ship is accepting!)
In a galaxy far, far away, where a powerful, dark Empire rules with an iron hand, you are one of the few who have escaped its clutches. Whether a jedi, a padawan or a force sensitive, you're being hunted. You've heard the rumours, seen the signs. It's hard to ignore the Empire when it's actively bringing the entire galaxy to heel.
But then you hear the Force Calling, and it's calling you to New Nystao, Wayland, a city on a small planet on the edges of Mandalorian space.
Will you heed the Call?
Everywhere in a Toy Store
Features: flying pigs with a complicated legal system, multidimensional travel, and delightful creativity and humor.
What if you mix a girl who can travel through dimensions with an abandoned doll that has nothing left in his own world? Surely nothing bad will happen; and they certainly won't get trapped in a bunch of different dimensions floating through the cosmos while trying half the time to survive while the other half looking for something the girl doesn't even know whether it exists or not...
Total Party Kill
Features: a D&D-like setting, a murderous goose, and a falsely-accused jackalope who also happens to be a labor organizer.
A couple of witches run across a sign post: Adventurers Wanted! Earn a ridiculous amount of gold while saving the world from terrible enemies! Gryphons need not apply. All skill levels and backgrounds (excluding gryphons) are accepted!
And somehow (another adventuring party getting blown up by a series of accidents but also mostly the bard may have something to do with it), they get tangled up in the supposedly-lucrative opportunity, along with an old drunk who may be the Lee Roy Jenkins who went missing years ago, and the heir of the Florescu family.
And now, for the interviews with LSSers! Let's see how the competition has been going from the perspective of the writers.
Squills: What's LSS Round III been like for you so far? Any highlights you'd like to share?
soundofmind: It has been lovely. Currently my life-work-writing balance is skewed in favor of writing. It's fine. I'm normal. (I love writing). Highlights? Writing
KateHardy: Amazing! Its been a lot of fun and the crew has been incredible! Well there was this one where we planned out a short meeting post, which escalated into an insane 5000 words. There have also been I think three characters now added purely randomly. And the latest moment was when we decided to write a dream into the story and concocted the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in a RP post.
EllieMae: So far, LSS Round III has been amazing for me and it has been a great experience. I have gotten to know some of my fellow YWS-ers better from working as a team and it has been my favorite roleplay I have done yet. My crew is doing an entirely poetry based RP so it has been super fun! My highlights have been seeing my amazing teammates work so hard and power through to help us meet word count!
herbalhour: this round has been very fun, & has definitely improved my rping skills! a few highlights are: the amount of gay we have >:3, the apology post (no ukeleles) and ummm @WeepingWisteria's 10/10 hearing
S: If you've participated in previous rounds, how is this round similar or different?
s: I think this LSS has been my favorite of all three I've been in so far. I found the key to enabling the deep brainrotting of writing together: just get a group of people to rp with months before the competition where you all do a massive ridiculous rp and get super involved and invested in each others ocs and bring those same ocs into a new and better story. LMAO It was a happy accident. I found a group of people who will be as insane and obsessed as me. A true treasure
K: This round feels a lot more...together? If that makes sense. Maybe I'm just following other roleplays more, but it feels like people are encouraging each other more and the atmosphere is not ooh when will this team drop out, its more like omg they haven't posted someone go remind them, we all need to make it.
The wordcounts have also been utterly insane. Last round was a big step up from round one, but this is on another parallel universe from round two.
E: This is my first LSS
S: What are you most looking forward to in this round, or future rounds?
s: Writing more (and more) and crafting a really fun, well-written story :^)
K: Hmm well Tsunami of course, but honestly this round has been so much I'm just looking forward to seeing our story develop, we've barely scratched the surface of it right now.
E: For the rest of this round of LSS, I am really looking forward to seeing what happens in our roleplay and how we will tie everything together in the end. I am excited to continue to get to know my team and participate in some of the roleplay month events too!!
Thank you all for your responses! Feel free to cheer on the LSS ships in their OOC threads !
