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Join the Hunger Games!
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This is the thread for joining the upcoming Hunger Games story. Make a post here to introduce your character and their selection as a Hunger Games tribute.

Rules:

  • Nearly all of the characters will die. Don't join unless you're comfortable with your character dying.
  • Only one character per author to start with; that might change if few enough authors join.
  • Due to the nature of the Hunger Games, it's easy for your character to leave the thread at any time. (Although I'd appreciate if you DM me and tell me you want to leave the thread, so that I can promptly execute your character.)
  • Characters should be from Panem; no multiversal travel or superhuman powers. You can create a Panem-based alt of an existing character template.
  • Say in your initial post which district your character is from, and check the other posts to make sure you're not taking someone else's spot. (There's one male and one female from each of the twelve districts.)
  • Districts 1, 2, and 4 are reserved for the Career pack. If none of the authors want to write a Career, they'll just be NPCs for whenever the story requires a convenient death.

I don't yet know what the schedule will be for the main story; it'll probably start out semi-asynchronous and then break down into subplots as characters run into each other.

If you aren't familiar with the Hunger Games canon but are nevertheless interested in joining the story, here's a background summary of the setting (with partial spoilers, but not plot-related ones):

Hunger Games setting info

The Hunger Games series is set in a postapocalyptic future in the country of Panem. Panem is divided into twelve districts, plus the Capitol. 74 years ago, the Capitol crushed a rebellion by the districts and took back control of the nation, and as a punishment and reminder to the people, they created the Hunger Games. Every year, two tributes from the teenage population of each district are randomly selected to enter a massive televised fight to the death.

Each district has a particular specialty of production: District 1, jewelry and luxury items; District 2, masonry and weapons; District 3, electronics; District 4, fishing; District 5, electricity; District 6, transportation; District 7, lumber; District 8, textiles; District 9, grain; District 10, livestock; District 11, agriculture; and District 12, coal mining. Most of the products are taken by the Capitol, so while the people of the Capitol are immensely wealthy, most of the districts are very poor, and their populations often starving. In the poorest districts, many children have no choice but to enter contracts called tesserae, in which they receive a small amount of extra food in exchange for an increased chance of being selected as a tribute.

Teens are also allowed to volunteer as tribute and replace the randomly selected one. The winner and their district get extra food until the next Hunger Games, so many people - nicknamed "Careers" - train in combat for years beforehand and then volunteer in the hope of winning wealth and glory. In fact, in about half of Hunger Games, an alliance of Careers work together to wipe out everyone else, and then fight among themselves to determine the final victor. Districts with frequent Careers, such as 1, 2, and 4, have become comparatively wealthy, and have a closer relationship with the Capitol than poorer and less successful districts, such as 11 and 12.

The 24 tributes are taken to the Capitol, where they spend three days training with weapons and other survival gear. They also try to impress wealthy donors, who bet on the games and can spend large amounts of money to give tributes extra supplies when they are in the arena. This process involves demonstrating combat ability before a board, as well as interviews and flashy costumes. Hunger Games mentors often impress upon the tributes that one of the most important part of the Games is acting ability, and creating a narrative that draws the attention of potential sponsors.

The Games themselves take place in a large arena which is styled differently each year - a desert, a forest, a ruined city, etc. The tributes start in a small ring around the very center of the arena, which stores a massive supply of weapons, gear, and food, called the Cornucopia. Smaller packages of gear are scattered around it, and get progressively more useful the closer they are to the center. Since most people start by rushing towards the center, many tributes often die within the first few minutes of the Games.

After the initial fight, the tributes must spend weeks trying to survive, until all but one are dead. Tributes try to kill each other, of course, but the other threats are just as dangerous - wild animals, seemingly edible plants that turn out to be poisonous, and especially lack of hydration. In addition, if enough time passes without anything interesting happening on screen, the engineers of the Games will create new challenges to spice things up - poisonous fog, for example. At the end, they may try to lure the remaining tributes together for a final battle.

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Lustersun

District 1

17 years old

Was planning to volunteer next year but did this year after his younger brother who suffers from anemia and epilepsy was selected

One of the best one-on-one fighters district 1 has ever seen his favourite weapon is a sword but is also skilled with blades of all kinds and boxing

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Pippi
District 8 (textiles)
16 years old

Pippi neither trained nor volunteered as tribute. When her neighbor Annika was chosen, Pippi stomped up to the lectern and demanded to see the President. This was interpreted as Pippi volunteering, but Pippi still believes she's simply going to the Capitol to complain about how the country is run.

She's an orphan and looks after herself. She's been strong enough to lift a horse since she was nine. She works on and off at the textile factory when she feels like it. She has not practiced with any weapons in particular.

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Crow
District 11 (agriculture)
18 years old

Crow has taken five tesserae for seven years running when she reaches her last reaping day. (And another the last three years because her mother had another damn baby.) When she was twelve she snuck behind her parent's back to do it at nearly the earliest opportunity, so that her older brother couldn't do it first.

She had 45 entries in the reaping ball and she still didn't get picked.

So, of course, she volunteers, before they're even finished reading out the girl's name.

 

Better to die covered in blood than be stuck a farmer.

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Hew
District 2 (masonry and weapons) (career)
17 years old

The night before the reaping, they told Hew he would volunteer. Out of all the candidates this year, he had proven himself the best suited to represent the district, they said. On account of his athletic performance, fighting spirit, essays on what the games really mean, mastery of the sword and spear, etcetera etcetera.

He hates the politics of it. Even if they say he’s being chosen because he’s the best, he knows that all the important families meet behind closed doors to decide who the ‘volunteers’ are going to be every year. If Hew was in charge of the district, he’d just have everyone who wanted to be in the games fight for it. But deciding based on politics and then pretending it’s merit… deciding for him and then pretending he’s volunteering… makes him feel dirty.

Well, at least he’ll finally get a chance to find out whether he’s good enough or not soon.

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Fraddam
District 3 (electronics)
17 years old

Fraddam used to spend long hours at his breadboard trying to build something that would change things - relieve his parents' long hours at the factory, bring his family more food, heal his mother's foot, or something.  He did invent some things, too - nothing huge (he guesses now in retrospect), but something.

And then the factory manager stole them and said he invented them himself.

It wasn't too long before Fraddam realized everything about electronics was rigged against him and everyone like him.  There was one way out... well, some people said District Thirteen was still out there doing something else on their own, but he couldn't trust those rumors.  There was one way out he could take:  to win the Games and get into the Victors' Village and have at least a better life.

So, he started training.

They say he was running and swinging axes more doggedly than anyone else, but he didn't care; he still wasn't good enough.  He could tell that because, when he picked fights, he often lost.  And then, a few years later, he was winning almost all the fights (sometimes with ax, sometimes spear, sometimes electrocution), so he decided he was as close to good enough as he could tell.

He might still lose - he knew that.  But this was the only decent plan he could find.  So, he bought up all the tesserae he could.

His name got called.  It didn't matter - he was going to volunteer anyway - but he's sort of sorry he didn't get the extra cachet of volunteering.

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