Gladius: A New Era?

As many of you know, we will be beginning Phase III of the World War Arc and with it will come the climax and ultimate resolution of a very long running plot here on Gladius. This plot was started when the site first launched and has been stewing in the background for years. As many of you know, this plot revolves around the resurrection of the Five Disciples. These Disciples are the legendary figures trained directly by Hagoromo according to the site's lore. From jump, staff agreed that each of these Plot NPCs will be the toughest and most challenging opponents a PC could face. Just one Disciple could very well require 3 or more X-class characters to defeat.

Their mission will be to more or less upend the current shinobi order and replace it with one more amenable to their philosophy, or more specifically, their leader's philosophy. The necessary result would be the abolition and remaking of the Hidden Village system.

Obviously this would have a tremendous impact on PCs and the way the way things work on the site. I never really intended them to "win" and like any staff driven Plot they are just a vehicle to encourage activity. However, some have expressed interest in the possibility of the Disciples taking over. I never considered it before but if members are open to it then I think it merits discussion.

I am starting this thread to get an official gauge from the community on how people would feel about that. I don't want to unleash the Disciples and potentially level villages/countrysides and disrupt what other PCs may have planned for the future. But if people are intrigued and like the possibility of losing against the Disciples and living in a dystopian world of their making then perhaps its something we should explore.

Feel free to post your thoughts here.

You know where I stand. I love the idea of actual stakes.

That sounds like a really interesting plot! I would love to see it play out if everyone is amenable to it! That said, something came to mind while I was reading this...a sort of best of both world kind of thing. So, I was thinking we could have the Disciples successfully take over like a group of unoccupied area of the ninja world, making it their home base of operations, and then maybe whatever PCs would want to support their cause or otherwise don't mind living under their rule could join up. Then, they could start sending out either PCs or NPCs (depending on what's more convenient/ acceptable for the userbase) to start laying siege to the occupied parts of the ninja world, like the Five Nations and such, possibly in successive waves of attacks to which the PCs and affiliates in these occupied locations being attacked could respond accordingly, depending on if they want in to this plot or not?

How's that sound to you guys? Just my two humble cents on the subject since the floor is open to discussion and all that.

I'm trying to give my opinion as a non-staff member. I absolutely adore the idea of living in a dystopian version of the world - so much quality RP potential and character development. If the Disciples won it would absolutely screw over most of my characters and the plans they have/have enacted for the future. That being said though, change is good and shaking up the status quo is probably good. the status is not quo Do I want my characters to die? Nope. But if any of them did, as part of a truly world changing war - that is epic and a worthy end to a characters story.

I do love this idea, basically, if they win some very unique sets of allies could form. Sides that would never compromise ideals would be forced to if they want to somehow save the world.

Urg no. Forcing a World of Ruin scenario is an awful idea. Talk about Trite.

The point of a staff enforced plot was to give the players a direction to go in at the start of the site. Now we don't need that anymore because it's the players driving the plot themselves though their actions.

The most interesting and memorable things that have happened in the story of the game had little to nothing to do with the staff run plot. The assassination of Satomi, The Chaos caused by Tattsu and the Nekoian empire, The Fall of Moonspire.

We simply don't need the Disciples to generate the plot anymore. At this point the village successes in their plan forcing the heros to make a comeback from behind is so overdone that it'd be more refreshing and expectation subverting to actually be allowed to stop the rest of them from being brought back .

It'd be one thing if I lost my character the village I put so much work into to another player. They would have had to put a lot of work into it to get to that point and would have to risk their own own stuff to do so. Those are actual stakes.

Losing that kind of stuff to an Overpowered NPC if just unfair. They are strong simply because of word of god and have nothing to lose since they exist just to be a plot device. Staff can make as many Npc as they need with whatever strength they want on a whim. They are are infinitely easier to replace that PC which usually take literal years to develop before they reach endgame status.

Besides if there's one troupe I absolutely hate in rpgs it's the Hopeless Boss fight which is what the Disciples would essentially become if we go this route.

I'm on the fence about this.

On the one hand, the setting sounds awesome to play in, especially if your playing a character that survived the war. Dystopian Naruto where the world is ruled by disciples of the SOSP? Sounds awesome. The war itself is also gonna be really fun.

The issue is...well....that's kind of GG isnt it? Even after this long plot thread, you can count the people that can actually challenge a disciple in a fight, assisted or not, on two hands. I just feel like there is a lot of potential for Gladius Pt. 2 to stagnate, especially if no current X tiers survive.

Another issue is that it feels like, if the Disciples are just that strong, it basically locks a ton of people out of any plot decision whatsoever, which is especially bad if their character might die as a result. For example, if Hizashi walks up to Kiri's gates, kicks down the door, and fires off a single attack, anyone that's not S or X dies immediately and can do nothing about it. Not that I think that staff would do that, but there's a lot of ways I can think of the dystopian stuff ending where PCs directly die and they can do basically nothing.

TLDR: Cool, but also runs the risk of the successor site stagnating and low level players not being able to do much

I've always stood on this idea. I love it. True change from the plot that you have to stop!

Well, it doesn't have to be the Disciples themselves that comes to lay siege but rather NPCs much less powerful than them who would come in successive waves spreading out around the world, methinks...and if any PCs wanna join them in being the invaders, them too perhaps. That way, whoever wants to fight for either side can participate in this plot, but ofc I defer to y'all on this.