[Story] A roleplayer plays a game of Civilization with his Characters

redwings1340

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Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been here last, but in the past, I've done various 'funday monday' games with various special conditions, and wrote them up here. In the past during civ V, I did a succession game, a deity game, and a game where I had to train soldiers 1/3 of the time, in order to teach myself to play militarily.

Now, I come with a game with a different premise. I am also a roleplayer, and have created several characters in various roleplays I've participated in, and in this story, I am going to pit six of my characters against each other in a game of civilization 6, playing as all of them on hotseat mode. To add an unpredictability factor, I am also adding in two emperor AIs in to the game.

Here are the characters. Some of them are from pokemon universes, while some of them are from original universes.

Redwings is a version of myself as a GM, who takes the form of an Articuno. Redwings is my most meta character, as he has the powers and OC knowledge of the GM, yet appeared in a campaign where he had to explore a universe to get to know the characters in it. He is constantly conflicted by a desire to create an interesting story and a desire to save lives within his universes. All of the other characters that appeared are his creations, though he eventually did willingly give up power to directly control what his characters do after he was unable to make effective decisions after my cat died in real life (yeah, I know it sounds horrible to rp that at the time, but I kinda needed to. I was in a bad state at that time).

Annie is a smart, caring woman from the city of Paradise (original universe), who was born directly after events where the Paradise government ended their isolationist xenophobia and joined the rest of the multiverse, and she ended up attending a border school called the chosen star academy, only to experience a field trip gone wrong that eventually ended in the apocalypse. Through it, she would raise several adopted daughters on the journey and help save reality with the help of Redwings and eventually Bill and Fennel. Then, much later, she would become a GM through shenanigans I won't get in to.

Hannah is a smart, socially awkward woman who was born after the events of the apocalypse and rebirth that Annie experienced, and grew up raised by Annie's daughters, as her parents were too sick to support her much. She constantly dreamed of the future and tried to invent a time machine to travel there, until one day, Redwings came to her in her sleep and granted her wish, bringing her 3000 years in to the future. When she arrived in the future, she realized how much she lost by arriving there, and hated the society she now lived in. Despite her feelings towards it, she helped save the future, and decided to stay to help fix the broken systems that were created in those thousands of years. Over the course of the campaign she also met a woman named Kat who saved her life multiple times and would eventually become her girlfriend.

Fennel (based on the Fennel from Pokemon) is a genius with an eccentric personality and very little self control. She is amazing with computers and dreams, and can manipulate them to extreme extents, even using them to save herself on a hard drive and therefore become immortal. She has helped save reality several times, and has a tendency to like and help people who are interesting, regardless of their morality. She believes in the potential of everyone, and considers it a challenge to engineer situations where everyone she likes can be helpful. She would consider it a sin and a waste to kill a smart villain, and spends as much effort protecting them as she spends protecting her friends. She also, despite living in the pokemon universe where these things don't exist, greatly enjoys Game of Thrones and Doctor Who.

Bill (also from Pokemon, specifically he originally from a comic I made based off of Twitch Plays Pokemon) is a computer genius who invented the PC storage system in pokemon. He is extremely manipulative and calculating, and has a fear of anyone gaining too much power. He only plans in the long term, and tries to think like a chessmaster, ten steps ahead. While his goals are good, his individual actions can be very bad, and he was once considered the worst villain in poke-earth. Fennel ended up reviving him after he died, and the two entered a relationship, their flaws and strengths balancing each other out quite well, and they do a good job of keeping each other in check.

Bill's Zigzagoon is a god, but doesn't know it. He can do almost anything he sets his mind to, but usually his mind is set to ice cream, so he is used more often for amusing shenanigans than he is for saving the universe. Most dismiss him as a common rodent, but Bill was the only one to notice his potential and took him in when others rejected him. Zigzagoon is very lucky, very dedicated to Bill, and very happy most of the time.

Jenny is Professor Oak's daughter (an original character from the pokemon universe). I've used her in two campaigns, but in separate timelines. In one timeline, she was manipulated by the Campaign for Paradox Time to enter and get captured by Paradise authorities, where she was imprisoned due to Paradise's extreme isolationist policy at the time, as they were hiding from the Outsiders. She eventually escaped the Paradise government's clutches and led a rebellion against them. In a different timeline, she started her pokemon journey as a normal pokemon trainer, and she grew an attachment to Rosalia, a reckless individual who came through to her universe while not knowing what a pokemon was. In both of these timelines, Jenny has developed a tough mental shell and a military mind, where she is tough in her pursuits of whatever goals she has in mind.

G and Pavlov are arrogant, smart, lazy characters played by the GM in many of these campaigns, who you need because they have access to lots of technology and information you don't have, but you also hate and want to punch constantly. G has has more interactions with Bill, Fennel, Redwings, and Annie, while Pavlov was involved quite heavily in Hannah's campaign.

Up next, the introduction to the game.
 
Introduction

Annie sighs as she feels a sense of the ethereal plane wash over her. By now she’s an experienced GM, or at least an experienced something, having experienced plenty of adventures from her unique vantage point, some of them from the side, and some of them directly. Still, even though she understands how her creator works now, she still gets chills whenever she feels the call to join him in any events, and as it happened, she was feeling one of those chills right now.

She appears next to the Articuno in the space that exists because it needs to, and takes out her trusty diary, which she keeps to log her adventures with this semi-divine being. The bird seems silent, waiting for others to arrive, so she speaks first.

“So… where are we in the timeline now?” She asks, “The last time I saw you was at the Impossible Sea. Have you done that yet?”

Redwings shakes his head, “I’m just starting that, actually, so don’t give any spoilers. The last I saw you was Halloween. I’m assuming you haven’t done that yet?”

Annie shakes her head, “No, but that sounds pretty fun. What are we here for this time?”

Redwings pauses and activates a summoning circle. They both know the circle is meaningless and doesn’t actually do any summoning on its own, but he keeps it there for cinematic reasons anyway.

“Well, Annie…” He says, “Today we’re just going to have a bit of fun! Remember my civilization game with all the hosts?”

Annie laughs, “You mean the one you never finished?”

The bird nods, “Yeah, that one. Well, I figure it might be fun to start a new one, expect instead of with all of the hosts, have it be with all of my characters. What do you think?”

Annie thinks for a second and then nods, “Well, I’m not going to say no to a game, and for reasons I can’t fathom, this doesn’t seem to be even remotely against any of our overly convoluted and seemingly random rules. For once, I think you have a pretty good idea! Lets do it!”

As Redwings begins summoning, other individuals start pouring in to the ethereal plane. First, Bill, Fennel, and Zigzagoon come in, followed by Jenny and Hannah. Annie watches them slowly take their seats at a nearby table, a bit confused, not knowing what’s going on.

After everyone sits down, the lights turn on and Redwings starts talking.

“Welcome, my characters,” he begins, “for the first ever character challenge, where all my characters, and myself, compete against each other in a game or other activity! Depending on whether this is fun or successful, I may or may not do this again. For the first challenge, we will be playing a game called Civilization 6!”

Everyone looks at the bird a bit funny, until something clicks in Fennel's mind and she laughs, “Ooh! I love this series! Well, I loved the one game I played of this, but I decided that if I played more it would literally destroy my life, and I’m pretty busy, so I haven’t played it since!”

Redwings looks at her. “Ok, Fennel, we need to talk,” the bird says. “You know a lot of stuff you shouldn’t know. You’re friends with Pinkie Pie, you’re a fan of Doctor Who and Game of Thrones, yet I’m not even sure I can say you break the fourth wall, because you’ve only done it once, in a comic that wasn’t even canon. You know you weren’t born in my universe, right?”

Fennel laughs as a response, “Fourth wall? Nope, not that I know of, I just like those things, hehe!”

“But… But…” The bird sighs, “It’s really concerning when I don’t even understand you. Fine… Fennel, since you’ve somehow played this before, you wanna explain the game?”

“Okie dokie!” Fennel says, “So, this game is a civilization simulator! You start with a settler in the ancient era, then build up cities, train a military and build districts in the city to help them grow, and eventually create an awesome information era supercivilization! Ooh, I call China!”

The others start looking over their options, and Jenny raises a protest. “Ok. Where are we?”

Hannah also joins in, “Seriously, this explains nothing. Are you Fennel though? Like, actually Fennel? I’ve only met your clone before, you sound a lot more like I remember her explained to me.”

Fennel grins, “Yep! Ooh, we should introduce ourselves. I can name a few. There’s Bill and Ziggy near me, there’s Redwings, I think he created me, but he’s actually pretty fun! That’s Annie over there, hi Annie, ooh, something feels different about you than the last time I saw you, I like it! And you… You’re Hannah, I remember seeing you, I don’t think you saw me though. And that’s Jenny! Yay, I’ve met all of you, am I the only one here who has?”

“Well,” Redwings says, “you haven’t actually met Hannah, you just know who she is. If that’s the case, I have too, though I don’t think I’ve ever actually met Jenny before in person. Oh yeah, Jenny, I’m one of those strange beings I think Rosalia told you about.”

“I knew she wasn’t lying!” Jenny responds, full of pride, “Wait, didn’t she say you were dangerous?”

“He is,” Everyone in the room replies at once.

There’s a bit of an awkward silence, before Annie decides to break the ice by talking about the game some more.

“So, first things first,” she tries to remember from her GM gained memories, “I guess we… choose a civilization? I guess we should do this based on abilities, since red here is the only one who grew up in the universe this game is based on. And… Maybe Fennel? No. No, Red, seriously, how has she played this game before?”

The bird shrugs, “I have no idea, Annie. I guess I’ll take Norway for the ice theme.”

Hannah speaks up next, “Hey, this game looks pretty cool, but can we get Kat here? I want to play with her.”

The bird just glares at her, “No, Hannah, she’s not my character, so I couldn’t even if I wanted to. You can be without her for a few hours, you know,”

“Yeah, I know, but…” Hannah sighs, defeated, “Ok, Uh… I guess I’ll be Pericles, Greece. He seems pretty well rounded, and I want to play diplomatically.”

Jenny is the next one to speak, “Without a good and fast army, a civilization is nothing. I will take Scythia.”

Bill considers next, “I like the spy bonus, so I’m going to see how playing as France works. Zigzagoon, do you want to play too?”

Ziggy shrugs, “Nah, I’ll just play with you, Bill! We’ll make a team and make our decisions together!”

Bill smiles, “Wonderful. You will be an excellent assistant, Zigzagoon.”

Suddenly, Annie is the only one who hasn’t chosen a civilization, and she reads through them all again. “I’ll be the peacekeeper, Ghandi. Beware my nukes! Muahahahaha!”

Redwings and Fennel laugh, while everyone else just looks confused. Another awkward silence happens, then Redwings breaks the silence.

“I’m also going to be adding two computers in here.” He says, “I’m naming them G and Pavlov, just for fun. Enjoy killing them.”

A murderous look appears in Hannah’s eyes, “Oh, I know I can’t trust you, and I know you’re playing me, but… I’m taking the bait anyway. Pavlov, you’re dying first.”

Redwings laughs and nods, “I’m starting the game now, lets have fun, everyone!”

Annie smiles. Maybe for once, one of the bird’s plans won’t turn in to a full scale disaster. Without worrying, she starts the game.
 
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