I have heard of both, but I haven't seen either. I should look into that, thank you for pointing them out to me.
I appreciate your advice. You make an excellent point about the playerbase and the need to get them from other places than pbads. I was thinking word of mouth and going to people I played with in the past might be a good start - assuming, of course, they'd be into something so plot-centric.
I tend to shy away from premades because they tie a player's hands, but roles to fill within each 'team' would be a good way to get variety in the game. Journal commenting would have to be reduced to private texts/IMs/emails and nothing else for the truly plot-centric stuff, however, as there would be 'normal', contemporary characters in the game, they could potentially use the journals as social networking - and the clones/travelers could then answer, using them for their own purposes.