Interview with Justinian Ezkantion on his new RP, The Wild Men of WichitaJustinian Ezkantion, who became a citizen of Wintreath last year during the Refugee Crisis of Ainur, has started up a new character roleplay:
The Wild Men of Wichita. After a long drought of very little roleplay on Wintreath's forums, Justinian's new RP hopes to breathe new life into the RP Guild and the general RP scene. As Jarl of Culture, a member of the RP Guild, and a participant in the Wild Men of Wichita (as Frank "Punchy" Dennison), I sat down with Justinian for an interview.
1. Can you give a short introduction of yourself and your interest in roleplaying?I'm currently the Lore Master of Wild Men of Wichita, and former Sovereign of Dellenaria, former Crown Prince of Ainur, and all sort of other fancy titles from regions that don't exist anymore.
I've been an active Roleplayer since about two years ago when I began participating in Ainur's forum RPs before starting my own in Dellenaria and now here. I tried getting into the RPs on the Site Forums, but I found the larger size to be a bit overwhelming, as there was less of a close community to plan around. I generally stick to Offsite Forum RPs now due to that.
2. Can you give a summary of the setting of the Wild Men of Wichita RP?It's a post-apocalyptic setting following a catastrophic combination of the Great Depression and a second outbreak of the Spanish Flu which brought down almost all of the world's governments. The RP itself is set in the great plains where the eastern half of North America has united and is looking to "civilize" the continent once again while powerful gangs of cowboy-like raiders extort the common farmers for protection money and fight each other for control of said rackets.
3. The setting and lore is quite unique and extensive. Where did you get the inspiration to create all of this?In many ways I was inspired by Fallout New Vegas to create the image of a seedier and more modernized wild west. I refrained from that series' retro future aspects though, in favor of emulating the gang culture of pre-WWII America.
4. What is your role as Lore Master (the Wintrean title for Game Master) in the RP?My role is mostly to create an outline for the RP's plot to ride along, as well as to immerse players in the world through the narrative. But it's not all about making the actual RP. The day to day stuff includes making sure that players aren't breaking any rules, and if so how that situation should be handled. Plus I need to make sure the pacing doesn't slow down so much that players become disinterested or feel there's enough of a lull in activity to take a break for a while. After all, RP is for entertainment purposes, and it's my job to make sure that it's entertaining to the players.
5. As you're also the leader of the gang, can you tell us who the Wild Men of Wichita currently consist of?"Jackknife" Jim Luckett - Leader of the gang and adopted son of the leader of the main crime syndicate in Kansas, Rufus Luckett. He's an irritable, womanizing, hard-smoking and hard-drinking autophile who gets the job done, no matter how gruesome of an act that requires.
Punchy - A hard hitting, tough as nails American gangster with a troubled past and a penchant for blowing people to smithereens with his trusty shotgun.
Dima - A cossack and former pirate that can hold his own in a drinking contest and a riding contest. He's the best locksplitter in the state, and wears his baggy cossack pants enough that Jim has taken to calling him the "Shiekh of Araby".
Chief - A silent, lumbering Indian with hunting skills that would make some big cats blush. Though he used to be called Injun Joe, Jim took to calling him simply "Chief" because it reminded him of his motorcycle, and he never forgets his motorcycle.
Annie McOakley - A surprisingly lethal dentist from Ireland whose real name is Cary, but Jim of course found a way to make her sound like some kind of discounted Irish version of an American celebrity out of spite. She is probably the only one in the group with the equivalent education of a college graduate.
Smiley - An Irishman who might as well be Jim's twin. They're both womanizing, booze-drinking sons of the mob. He's the gang's best shot, or so he says.
6. What direction do you think the story will go? What should we expect?I already have a general outline of the story progression, but all I can say here is that after the raiding campaign the gang is currently conducting in Kansas, there's going to be a big campaign that will wrap up the first arc of this RP. The east is pushing hard on the gangs, and like cornered rats they're beginning to panic, and the actions they're going to take may end up making things far worse than they ever were going to be...