May We Have a OOC/chat forum?

[Irihi]

I love this story world and I can't wait to jump in and play, but the level of thought and detail is rather intimidating. Can we have a chat area for M&M veterans and newbies to post salutations, idle musings, catch up, and just generally discuss stuff that's not ready for prime time?

Also, what really drew me in to the good FFRPG's was a characters area/forum where newbs could read profiles of their fellow writer's PC's and then post a character of their own. I know that's a bit more difficult with multiple simultaneous timelines, but maybe we could have one of those too? Perhaps writers could go back and edit their characters if they put them in an age they later decided wasn't for them?

[Overlord]

*** The answer is YES! Follow the link for the OOC/Chat Forum. The site has been revamped since this post.  So, if you continue reading this thread, there is no longer a 'World' site, only this site and the Canon.***

Absolutely, I can.  We are just moving in to the new site and trying to get a feel for what we need and what should go where.  Kind of like moving into a new house.  So I am open to ideas. 

As to character profiles, you're right about the size and scope of the site.  So, there have been some discussions about that and right now, at least, those are being posted specific to individual storylines. 

Again, I am open to ideas/suggestions as we begin to shape this world to our needs.   Is an OOC area better here or on the World site?  Should an OOC area be specific to each Storyline, or would a general OOC area be helpful here?  Or both?

[Irihi]

*blank expression* "World site?" When I click the link it just boomerangs me back to the Amari Star splash page for M&M. Maybe I need to register for the Appogia login as well?

Ok. Did that. After it's approved I'll click the link again.

I did see character profiles are presently supposed to go in individual storylines, but I think a profile page/thread/subtopic would be better. Writers could include links to their active stories, and everyone can have a quick reference area to search for Dirk the Daring.

Also... I know there are jellyfish aliens, their cronie zombies, their bioweapons/harvesters, and humans. Can we do more aliens? Native life on Approgia like dragons or Tribbles? Can we say some humans genetically modified themselves for ascetics or optimization for different professions and environments? Since stories are compartmentalized, is it okay to just flesh out the world how we like and let the higher powers decide whether to include it as canon?

Cuz Ima totally make Irihi's backstory that she was a weapon against the jellyfish, 'cept she doesn't remember her purpose and now kills "lesser" hoomins because she's straight up psycho, yo. I want to explore the idea that Pod 7 discovered their whole human harvesting deal and was wiped out by Mothers because of that knowledge.

But I don't know if that's okay. Is there a story behind all the migrations, extinctions, and population books/declines on the timeline? Or can we co-opt those squigglies and X's for our own purposes?

[cw@q23.us]

I'm not sure whether dumping all the freeform characters into one single thread is going to be to our liking. If it's just to find them more easily, I'd comment that (a) it's easier to find a character in a storyline if you don't have to page through every character from every SL in the whole world, and (b) there is a forum search function, after all.

The squigglies and X's are somewhat vestigial from previous work on the framework of what this new storyworld was/is going to be, and the whole nature of canon. Frankly I'm surprised they survived ... but, there was nothing in particular to kill them ... so at this point, I would guess that they're free to be co-opted, or to be adjusted.

However, let's remember this: the freeform boards (which have got more head-start momentum than the rest) are projected to be "fast loose fun" sandboxes; and the Writers Groups for fiction & tabletop modules etc. are where the real storyworld canon will be developed, with oversight and coordination and conformity. It's early days yet, and I suspect that some of the questions don't have answers.

[cw@q23.us]

> Perhaps writers could go back and edit their characters if they put them in an age they later decided wasn't for them?

This is fascinating to me, how differently people think. Personally it would never occur to me to choose an age for a character. I would create a character for the age. Every time I've tried to repurpose a character from one setting to another, the character has become someone different altogether. Maybe some seed concept remains, but the character's entire history is gone & replaced. It's just new character creation, really.

[Irihi]

Ah I'm navigating and writing asinine questions from my phone, which is probably why I'm so confused. It took me 30 minutes just to find this bb again now that I'm a real person in Appogia. So... this board is the sandbox, right?

I need a big sign on the M&M splash page that says "Dumb, lazy people here." Or maybe just a direct link to this board.

[Overlord]

I think 'sandbox' is too broad a term.  The idea was that we couldn't and really did not want to police every single Storyline that will develop here.  The Story Coordinators will need to be responsible for that. We wanted to keep it open and fun for FFRP, but that being said, it still has to fit within the Canon and parameters of the World.  I mean that is, after all, what this whole space is about; the World of Appogia.  So, why would we allow stuff in here that is so totally foreign to Appogia, its not Appogia anymore?

The idea of the FFRP game is more of a 'development' board than sandbox.  Its a place where people can meet other writers and begin to understand the idea of collaborative writing with the hopes that at some point more serious smaller groups will join in Groups on the World to write something serious.  I would love at some point to have, say a short story writing competition or maybe even poetry, who knows.

So, in order to post and manage a Storyline on this FFRPG, a Story Coordinator must submit a premise.  I am going to expect the premise to be based on the Canon and the following statement:

Regarding References to Fantasy

The Appogia storyworld exists as a speculative-future extension of our own real world. Much of what has occurred in our history, is in Appogia’s history. Future technology, e.g. faster-than-light travel or the time-bending longevity molecule, all centers on empirical scientific believability, not the supernatural or magical. Appogia at its core is science fiction. Characters in the Second thru Fourth Ages might believe that they are communing with elemental spirits or invoking other-dimensional powers, but the writers & readers must understand that these characters live within a superstition devolved from their space-faring ancestors’ knowledge of physical science.

In short: aliens, not elves & dragons; technology, not magic; and interstellar space, not mystic realms. References to Heroic, High or Low Fantasy should be filtered through Appogia’s roots in Gritty Fantasy expressed through a realm grounded in science fiction.

I realize the Canon is not fully fleshed out but thats part of building a new site and World, its not finished and it may never be, but it can be added too or changed.  So I will entertain premises/arguments that add to or modify the Canon.  There is a discussion area set aside to discuss Canon topics which will eventually end up in the Canon or not.  It is also the place to discuss things already in the Canon.

I encourage everyone to join in those discussions and help us flesh out this brave, new World.

[cw@q23.us]

I suspect anyone here is clever enough to come with better ideas than genetically engineering reversions to swords and sorcery and dragons and minotaurs and elves.