Guidelines for Official Story/Age Creation

Dalken Starbyne · **Joined:** Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:06 pm **Posts:** 152

Not to be annoying or anything, but I would also appreciate an "official" answer to my question on the previous page, about Ages that "bend" the rules the Art but don't actually "break" them.

Thanks in advance!
-Dalken

mszv · **Joined:** Wed May 10, 2006 5:28 am **Posts:** 2266

Wow what fun, so interesting! It seems so much more "real" now!

All I wanted to say.

CrisGer · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 1:11 am

Past Linking facts and background from RAWA can be found here for those working on these concepts....

D'ni Desk

http://web.archive.org/web/20060613030412/www.dnidesk.com/refindex.html

Letters from RAWA

http://web.archive.org/web/20060522125401/www.dnidesk.com/rawaindex.html

ChloeRhodes · **Joined:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:29 am **Posts:** 520

Ok RAWA, here's my questions.

1. One of the ages I was working on, but stopped until storyline rules could be laid out, was an age used by a small group of D'ni Writers who wanted to break the laws for the Art (like changing Descriptive books, writing man made objects into ages etc.) The building they did this in was located somewhere in a self-contained area D'ni, but not in the main cavern, basically in another area off the main-cavern. They experimented with Descriptive books, and one of their experiments went horribly wrong, destroying the building, but creating permanent invisible "vortexs" throughout the remains of the building. When an Explorer steps through one of these they are transported to the past, before the experiment went array. I didn't plan on including any information about individual people in the group, just that it was a group of Writers who set up shop in a small cavern somewhere in D'ni, and that they were breaking the rules of writing, and their last experiment destroyed them and the cavern they were in. Would something like this be allowed?

BladeLakem · **Joined:** Sat Jul 29, 2006 12:58 am **Posts:** 582

RAWA wrote:

3) These rules are specifically intended to be guidelines for Ages and/or Storylines which are intended to be considered "official" (i.e. "canon"), where continuity is a prime concern.

So does this mean that one of the things the Archivists will be maintaining is the record of that prime continuity? That is, will the Archivists need to be checking each bit of fan content against previously approved ones?

Or will the Archivists need to just check that the fan content does not conflict with Cyan's canon (and thus leading to many 'instances' of compatible story)?

Another question to ponder:

Is there an explicit concern on things that stretch credibility? For example, one might posit a minor guild the D'ni had at the fall. But if 100 different people posit their own minor guilds for at the time of the fall... When is too much too much?

RAWA · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:30 am

Ahvree wrote:

My request for clarification concerns Red Herrings. I am in the midst now (and have been dabbling with for 2 years) some red herring and a couple of not red herring story lines. A "story setter upper" has to say or not, because it would give away the red herring to say a storyteller only wrote red herrings. Anyway...say a storyteller (not the same as an age writer) were to create a character who will take explorers willingly on an Uncle Wiggly branch of a story that requires some allusion to canon, but the character(s) is eventually found out (someday)? Will this be ok?

I suppose that depends on how long "someday" is. I don't have a problem with this in theory, as long as one doesn't use this as a loophole to get around the rules and then "conveniently" end up not revealing it was, in fact, a deception.

Calam · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:40 am

RAWA wrote:

Writers cannot write an Age where their character meets Captain Kirk

Dang. And I had William Shatner all lined up for voice-acting, too...

What about spinoffs? Like, say, instead of a Coke machine, how about a soda machine that deliver some generic and non-existant brand, like Mr. Bubbles Soda*?

*not a real brand, of course.

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:49 am

Calam wrote:

RAWA wrote:

Writers cannot write an Age where their character meets Captain Kirk

Dang. And I had William Shatner all lined up for voice-acting, too...

What about spinoffs? Like, say, instead of a Coke machine, how about a soda machine that deliver some generic and non-existant brand, like Mr. Bubbles Soda*?

*not a real brand, of course.

I'll bet it can be any generic brand. Maybe even D'nitos, unless you claim to have an exclusive on the franchise.

RAWA · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:01 am

BladeLakem wrote:

1) Are there limits on what the surface backstory of a character can be? Can all of my characters be, say, famous archeologists/Millionaires/Professional Wrestlers/All of the above as long as the above writing limits are adhered to?

As far as your own characters go, if it was acceptable in MOUL, I don't see why it wouldn't be acceptable in MORE. The other players will decide for themselves whether your characters are believable and reasonable. Until we see specific problems that are serious enough to address, I'd rather let these kinds of things work themselves out. If you have a character that "dies" and then shows up in the Cavern again a week later, the other people are just going to write you off on their own.

If you're seeing an obvious problem here that I'm not thinking of, feel free to enlighten me. :)

Quote:

2) How about places on the surface? What if I want to make an 'age' that is a gas station in New Mexico? My garage? If purely story elements, how much can I fiddle with details of real places? Can I make up fictional places on the surface?

This, too, is more likely to be measured by the other players rather than by restrictions from us. As long as you're not using a trademarked brand of gas station, for example, I don't have a specific problem with this that is leaping to mind.

Quote:

3) Is there any way we can have a few minor details clarified for background purposes?
Such as:
* Where do new people get their Relto books?
* How much do surface governments know about D'ni?
* Do explorers ever make it home when 'going to the surface'? Are they just considered to link to the cleft and find their way home, wherever that is?

- The Relto Book Faerie.
- How much do surface governments know about anything?
- Yes, they link to the Cleft, but once they're on the surface, it's up to them where they go.

:)

RAWA · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:08 am

dtierce wrote:

An example posed in the rules was an isolated section of the city accessible via the Nexus...
This implies a couple of issues:

1) Nexus link
The most common mechanism for adding a link in the Nexus is to register it using a Nexus pedestal. Are we allowed to copy the Nexus pedestal for this purpose? Is there a restriction as to whether the registered link is Public or Private?

2) Initial Access
If the Nexus is the means for revisiting a new area, there must be a way to get there initially since the area is isolated. The only example of this I can think of is the Yeesha portal leading to K'veer. Are we allowed to create floating portals (of our own pattern design) or should we create some other non-book means for linking? I assume these portals would also have to be located in fan-created areas. Are we allowed to create something like a Bahro tablet for linking? If we access the area via a book, the Nexus link seems redundant.

Good questions, for which I don't know the answers at this point.

RAWA · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:16 am

Dalken Starbyne wrote:

I have an idea that goes like this: my character would write an Age, and, while it doesn't have stuff like Yeesha's powers (no time travel, or instances, or weather control, or stuff like that), it has an oddity in it more along the lines of the Catherine-style of writing

While I don't oppose this in theory, in practice, Catherine's style is meant to be uncommon - few could pull it off and result in a stable Age. If too many people want to make "bizarre" Ages, we'll have to become more strict with this.

RAWA · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:19 am

SeanMc74 wrote:

I know the rules of writing state that you can’t change the descriptive book once you link to it, does that mean we will not be allowed to modify an age once it’s approved and incorporated into MORE? Does it have to be the final version before we can submit the age? Thanks for answering our questions RAWA.

This will likely be dependent on the Guilds doing the approvals. If you make changes to your Age, it will have to go through the approval process again.

ghaelen · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:36 am

Thanks RAWA, for taking the time to answer all these questions. I am very excited by these developments.

Just one more minor clarification. If the Relto pages are off limits, are the Bahro Stones also off limits? We don't write them, but could they appear in an age/story we do write?

Dalken Starbyne · **Joined:** Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:06 pm **Posts:** 152

Thanks, RAWA! An answer not only I can live with, but makes me quite happy, personally...that is, unless a lot of people start making "bizarre" Ages. >_>

Gandhar · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:18 am

3 – Characters, places, groups, etc. that have appeared in Cyan's games, novels, etc. can be mentioned or used, but Writers must not reveal any new information about those characters, places, groups, etc., where "new information" is defined as information that would in some way change what is known about the character, place, or group.

Since the 'Moiety' are part of the "Storyline" but still a part of the English language i.e. Anthropology. one of two units into which a tribe or community is divided on the basis of unilineal descent.

Is it feasible to delve into their background as well as the divisions that came off of them?

Guidelines for Official Story/Age Creation

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