Floating Castle - Collaborative RP Discussion

[Victin]

Okay then: what scares you the most? What worries you about joining the RP? What doubts do you have about how stuff works and what you can do and cannot?

I think one of my issues is that I see posts like this one and pretty much every post after that, and... well, I just cannot write that much. Are you expected to write all of that? Is it a collaborative thing done over PM and then the end result posted in the forums? I don't know any of this. If it's a thing done over PM, how much are you expected to write for each pass? Etc, etc.

I'm a newbie when it comes to this stuff.

The minimum writing needed for any quest is one post. The maximum is one post, or 60k characters if you will. That means you can write as little or as much as you want, and as long as you complete the goal of your quest, whatever it is, you're fine.

Either by PM or by Google Docs, I suppose the process is the same, and probably the same for every other (possibly collaborative) writing process. My opinion, or the way I do it, is usually talking with my partner what are their ideas for the quest, and then outline what we both want to happen in it. Then we start writing until we feel we are done and it's ready to be posted. By the way, when I say 'outline' it can be from that vague general idea you have when writing by the seat of your pants to a mental script of each and every moment

Besides, I think most of the time, you'll find out you've written more than expected to Even if you didn't, you already finished the quest, achieved the goals and all, so it's good.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

As Vic and Dilly have already answered (why am I also answering then? I don't know.), there is no minimum post length. The long posts are usually long because their writers REALLY wanted to write a lot. The only limit on post length is the 60k character upper limit-- i.e., unless you have special dispensation, one quest can't run longer than one post. But your post could be three sentences long if you fulfill the objectives given.

As for how people do it... yeah. It's totally open. It has to be co-written between the two players to whom it's assigned, but they can do it however they want. The impression I get is that most people write and discuss via googledocs, or write in googledocs with occasional discussion of what they're doing via Steam or chatroom PM. I have also, once, co-written over PM in the chat, going back-and-forth with a couple of sentences each, with an interlude of emailing chunks to each other. You can write by PM, email, forum PM, googledocs, in person if that's ever possible, carrier pigeon, you name it. Anything that works for the pair. Similarly, as Dilly and Vic already mentioned, division of labour within the post is totally up to each pair of writers, provided they're both comfortable with it.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

I realize that this is a double-post, but I am writing to give people a heads-up that the Index has been renovated and updated. It will continue to stay up to date, as will many other things over the coming days/ weeks as your exhausted GMs get their act together.

[Sophira]

Would you like me to sticky the recap thread? Or any others, for that matter?

(For that matter, I should probably try to give you permission to sticky threads yourself - as well as eli, of course.)

[edit: I referenced the wrong thread.]

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Yes, stickying the recap would be wonderful-- along with the Quick Start Guide. And character sheets, and things. (And possibly Quest Rewards?)
(Yes, being able to sticky things ourselves here would be amazing.)
hijack from eli: Personally, I think being able to edit posts is a marvel of its own. Thanks again, Soph.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

New Rule: After this round (yes, yes, extensions for everyone except Adell and Vic who are wonderful and ON TIME), extensions will ONLY be granted if they are requested minimum 24 hours before the original deadline. If you do not request an extension 24 hours before the deadline AND do not post by the deadline, the quest is officially failed and you get no penalties for it, just also no reward and stuff.

This is for a couple reasons: first, we have had issues with waiting in the past and we simply cannot wait indefinitely for quests. Second, asking for an extension AFTER the deadline is really unfair because by that point, based on first, it should already be failed. Third, asking for an extension LESS than 24 hours BEFORE the deadline means the GMs might not SEE it until after which means, de facto, it's like it should already be failed because we didn't grant the extension before the deadline and that's not fair for you.

[Adell]

I'm punctual

[Victin]

I thought we'd need another day but whoa Adell writes good and fast. And he said he's lazy. Sure I believe in you, Adell.

[IslaKariese]

Rabbie and I posted! Here's a fun convo from Neatchat about it:

IslaKariese approves

Rabbie and I are working on ours

Victin

I can see. Did you break the word limit?

IslaKariese approves

Apparently we went WAY over the word limit oO

Victin

... How much?

IslaKariese approves

NINJA

IslaKariese approves

13000

Victin

:0

Pixelmage

...

Pixelmage

*gawks*

Krika

...wait, what's the word limit?

Pixelmage

That's... Over double.

IslaKariese approves

...We had fun, okay!?

Krika

6000?

Krika

Damn, girl.

Endless Sea [stuff]

Krika

I wish I could have that much fun.

Pixelmage

wait

Pixelmage

no.

Pixelmage

waaaait

Pixelmage

isn't the character post 60k?

Pixelmage

and you got 13k?

Krika

....yeah, I was going to say?

Victin

HSQ¹¹

Pixelmage

or is that 13k words?

IslaKariese approves

13000 over the limit

Pixelmage

oh

Krika

Oh.

Krika

.....73k?

Pixelmage

*senses*

Krika

You wrote 73k wods?

Victin

Oh

Pixelmage

no

Krika

*words

Victin

I read that as 130000

Pixelmage

73k characters.

Krika

Characters.

Krika

Ooooh.

Pixelmage

counting spaces.

Krika

That makes a LOT more sense now.

IslaKariese approves

Appara-fucking-ly. *giggles madly*

Victin

Remove ALL THE SPACES

Guyshane

O_O

Pixelmage

that wouldn't bring it down enough.

Pixelmage

spaces are a fairly minor number in that case.

IslaKariese approves

it's 72k without spaces

Victin

o.o

IslaKariese approves

Rabbie is both honored and dismayed by your surprise

IslaKariese approves

...It's just occurred to me that we wrote a fucking NaNoWriMo novel

Pixelmage

you might be able to splice it into a main + side story post?

Qara-Xuan [away]

no, a nano novel is 50k+ *words*

Qara-Xuan [away]

forum limit is measured in characters

IslaKariese approves

Oooooooh, that makes me feel better

IslaKariese approves

And we're back in the green. Posting now

Victin

Yay...

Qara-Xuan [away]

yay!

Krika

Yay!

Endless Sea [stuff]

Mimsy is unamused that you stole his shtick.

Endless Sea [stuff]

Victin

Wait no I'll have to read it all! Yay! Nay! Yay!

Krika

It's a Yay.

Qara-Xuan [away]

technically you don't have to read anything you don't want to

Qara-Xuan [away]

except for GM posts. You have to read those

Victin

Victin

I want to read it. I'm just lazy.

IslaKariese approves

I'm copy/pasting the convo for Rabbie to read in the discussion page

Victin

Hehe

[Scarab]

As much as I hate to disappoint, nanowrimo is 50k WORDS, not 50K CHARACTERS sooo we're not actually THAT far over the limit.

Enough to annoy the forum word limit, though. Issy be good writer, we have fun, I sleep now

(yeah I didn't read properly, in my defence it's 2:18 am here )

[IslaKariese]

Also, this visual needed for the final stretch of the quest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jll4a1SRN28

[Scarab]

Now that I'm conscious I figure we should explain a little about how these little creatures, which Issy and I have dubbed 'Dreamlings' work. Depending on GM approval, of course.

Issy might be able to tell you more, as these are her cute owl-like babies. As you can tell they're not malicious creatures. They simply enjoy games, and they can only interact with real people while said people are asleep and dreaming. They do this by 'grabbing' the minds of people sleeping on other levels of the castle. Anyone sleeping on ANY floor of the castle at all has the possibility of being snatched up by a Dreamling, but they only "woke up" (heh) and became active when the seal to their Floor was broken.

The Dreamlings, as said, aren't cruel or evil in the slightest. They're basically eternal children. They pick people up and dump their minds on their floor (which otherwise appears totally empty) whereupon the Dreamers dreams begin creating the 'game' for them. That's where the problem starts of course. They can't really control what people dream about. They just specify the type of Game and it's the subconscious of the dreamers that creates the actual dreamscape. My guess is, the Dreamlings decided they would like a 'racing' or 'running' game from Pan and Tamar, with their main goal being to find one another's dreamscapes. The Dreamlings didn't realise, though that the two players subconscious minds would be so... well... frightening. It wasn't the Dreamligns that created those awful clouds of crawling darkness: that was all Pan and Tamar's doing.

At the moment the Dreamlings aren't playing their games, but it seems Tamar and a slightly reluctant Pan are their ambassadors now, so Tamar will have to have a talk with Pan and whoever the leader of Severed Storm is at this moment, and talk to them about interacting with the Dreamlings on the 24th level, coming up with a way for them to play their games without putting people in danger. At which point, they will be allowed to start playing their dream games again. They might even be powerful allies if treated well...

I guess this means that, once negotiations have been reached and they're allowed to play again, any of the players can choose to visit the Dreamlings, and their own subconscious world, whenever they feel like it. But be careful! The Dreamlings' can't control what you will see.

[Anura]

Okay, assuming that I wanted to get in on this (which, knowing me, is unlikely to materialize)... what's the policy here on guns?

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

No guns. Bows are okay, though.

For more information about getting started and how things work and stuff, you can check out the Rulebook.

[agoraoptera]

Not that I'm particularly eager for the next round of quests and perhaps I've missed something, but...

It's been a month since the last deadline. What precisely are we waiting for?

[eli_gone_crazy]

My having the time and energy to write the next set of quests.

[Endless Sea]

Also, my having the time and energy to finish mine. :| I keep forgetting about it, even though I've got it open in another tab 24/7.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Here’s an idea I had after watching Ender’s Game. I’d like to go forward with this, however, I would also like everyone’s permission/go ahead before I go godmoding characters.

The pitch is this:

Your character wakes up in a battle school, with no memory of how they arrived. They are partnered with people who are familiar, but also unplaceable. These partners are both teammates and competition. To win, one must become the best, or most capable fighter in the tourney.

Alongside the battle school’s challenges, players would be trying to find their memories, all without letting the battlemasters or possible spies be aware of their doubts.

So, tl;dr, your character gets warped, shuffled, and has temporary amnesia. No other blocks would be placed on your character, beyond the few necessary ones (no leaving the battleground floor, for example).

Is anyone okay with this idea?

[Sicon112]

It sounds awesome, but unfortunately Kurt is MIA. Maybe later?

[eli_gone_crazy]

It would be (if I get mine and Qara's way) in the next turn.

If you could, writing that sidestory in the next week would be preferable, anyway.

No pressure if you are unable to, however.

[RussetDivinity]

That sounds superawesome. Even if Likovya doesn't get involved (though it'd be neat if she could), I'd love to read it.

[eli_gone_crazy]

I'm still mulling over it (and it's wholly dependent on whether people even want to do it), but I would include all PC and NPC characters. So, depending on people we may even see Yester the goblin or Tad the blacksmith?

[Tohrinha]

This does sound fun. How much would they be forgetting?

[Victin]

I'm not sure I understand it. Is this a quest? Or what is it?

[eli_gone_crazy]

This is a part I'll admit to being vague on, and wouldn't mind feedback. My original idea is that they would lose all memory (though not muscle memory) up to the point that they entered the castle.

And Vic? It would be a series of quests, ending when someone wins the battleschool, or defeats the battlemaster.