[OOC] History Generator [Open 'till the end of time]

[Vordak]

The Premise

History Generator is quite different from the traditional form roleplay on the Guild: rather than each player writing for a separate character of their own, it involves everyone collaborating, in order to create the timeline of an entire world; there will be no GM and no structured plot, other than the one provided by the players themselves and their posts. Everything from ground up is a community effort to build entire civilizations, with the great and the terrible, the geniuses and the fooled masses, discoveries and inventions, plagues and wars. The participants are given utmost freedom in their creativity, as long as it comes with respect for their fellow writers: use whatever formats you want, whether it be diaries, encyclopedic texts, biographies or legends; create whatever content you think will deepen or further the plot.

The above being said, i'd still like to provide a few rules and guidelines, as to ensure that this does not turn to utter chaos.

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Rules and Guidelines

Communicate. Simple as that, make sure that you talk over the major decisions with other participants, that may have great effect on the tone and overall plot of the roleplay, and make sure they aren't met with objection. I cannot strain this enough: while keeping an individual style to your posts and maintaining creative independence is of great importance to enjoying the roleplay, both for the writer and his readers, History Generator is still largely a collaborative effort.

Try to keep the posts ordered If you really want to take the next post and are confident that you can finish it promptly, then call dibs in OOC. That way, confusion can be avoided; and if it happens that several players at once want to work on a specific bit of the timeline at once, there's always this brilliant thing called TitanPad.

Be careful with breaking away from a set tone. Vastly different cultures can exist in the same place and at the same time, but even then, there always exist an overarching narrative in the setting. The Tolkien dwarves are a stark contrast to elves, but both exist within a uniform fantasy universe. Moreover, a central theme can be of great help in stringing together different posts from different players; knowing how to keep balance between uniqueness and uniformity is key.

This post may be updated with new rules and guidelines later on; as well as with a brief summary of the IC, to help orient new players.

[ClocktowerEchos]

Hype!

How should we start tho? Should we leave it to you?

Also, anyone got a good map to use? I might be able to provide one if not.

[Vordak]

First things first, we ought to discuss how we kick this off.

Having thought about it, i propose that we actually start with an already established civilization; perhaps, a few neighboring tribes that have handed together and become the dominant force in the region, something of that scale. The roleplay needs to evolve fast in order for it to sustain itself, so starting off with something substantial, rather than spending the first ten or so posts describing geography and per-historic wildlife struck me as a rational idea.

[Vordak]

How should we start tho? Should we leave it to you?

Also, anyone got a good map to use? I might be able to provide one if not.

@ClocktowerEchos

No way. Other than being able to edit the original OOC post which includes the guidelines and rules, i've as much authority here as any other player.

As for the map, it's definitely going to be needed, but probably later down the road, when we've already got something going. As i said in the above post, we need some momentum going, so deciding the geographical specifics can be left for later - unless the majority of players agree that it's a 100% hype thing to do.

It shouldn't be done hastily either way, as we'll pretty much be stuck with it; hard to change the layout of an entire planet, especially in this kind of roleplay, where will have been actively used in previous posts.

[ClocktowerEchos]

First things first, we ought to discuss how we kick this off.

Having thought about it, i propose that we actually start with an already established civilization; perhaps, a few neighboring tribes that have handed together and become the dominant force in the region, something of that scale. The roleplay needs to evolve fast in order for it to sustain itself, so starting off with something substantial, rather than spending the first ten or so posts describing geography and per-historic wildlife struck me as a rational idea.

@Vordak

So something like a large unifed tribal group acting as quasai-Romans and a bunch of independent tribes outside of them?

[Vordak]

<Snipped quote by Vordak>

So something like a large unifed tribal group acting as quasai-Romans and a bunch of independent tribes outside of them?

@ClocktowerEchos

Exactly. Also, gtg sleep right now, so i'll have to leave the rest of the discussion to you 'till morning.

[Vordak]

So, do we divvy up by parts of the solar system/planet, or by jobs (One person in charge of calamities, or war, prosperity, so on and so forth), or not at all?

@AccursedBiscuit

I would prefer if we could all change the things we want, and maybe put the building process in to different segments.

@Swagmeister

Swagmeister's version is closer to what i had in mind; i'm not quite sure what the building processes are supposed to be, but all the players are working with the same exact planet (or planetary system) and can interact with any part of it at will: the surrounding cosmos, nations, their cultures, calamities, wildlife, magic (we are including that, i presume?), or even a single person, be it a king, or peasant.

[Polybius]

Room for one more? This is interesting!

[AccursedBiscuit]

Hmm, I guess some basics we could cover are Land/Sea ratios, number of continents, and whether said continents could sustain life. Or maybe just keep it simple and start with a Pangaea? Then later we could move bits of land around due to shifting tectonic plates, meteor collision, etc.

[ClocktowerEchos]

I just say that we get a map and focus on one area until we decide other areas need some love to when they start interacting with other areas.

That said, how fair back are we starting exactly? Mesopotamia age or something?

[Nevix]

Count me in.

[Shayd]

Which are we starting with folks? An established civilation or a brand new planet?

[AccursedBiscuit]

I just say that we get a map and focus on one area until we decide other areas need some love to when they start interacting with other areas.

That said, how fair back are we starting exactly? Mesopotamia age or something?

@ClocktowerEchos

I think the general consensus so far is we start with sapient life, filling in background as needed.

[ClocktowerEchos]

[quote=@AccursedBiscuit]

I just say that we get a map and focus on one area until we decide other areas need some love to when they start interacting with other areas.

That said, how fair back are we starting exactly? Mesopotamia age or something?

@ClocktowerEchos

I think the general consensus so far is we start with sapient life, filling in background as needed.

@ClocktowerEchos

I know that, I'm wondering how far should life had already advanced thus far and what kind of sapient life are we talking about? Bog standard humans?

Also, check you BBCcoding, you derped it up.

[Nevix]

I think a humanoid species would work best.

[AccursedBiscuit]

Fair enough. So, what's our evolutionary timeline look like? Dinosaurs, but no extinction level event, gained sentience, mammals now bottom of food chain. Or maybe add a magic element, some creatures gained sapience without evolving, due to proximity of magic "hotspots", so basically sentient animals, who also wield magic. What do you guys think?

Also, fixed :)

[Nevix]

I like the idea of magic. Perhaps we have human-like creatures and maybe reptilian humanoids with intelligence. Avian humanoids?

[ClocktowerEchos]

I'm hesitant about magic, it could easily fuck things up real easily not to mention all the other stuff that could entail.

I think we should just go normal route with standard humans for now and have a sort of civilization we all "focus" on. Most of the actions we write about will relate to the civilization or its neighbors for the time being.

We may also need someone to help keep track and archive all of this stuff.

[Nevix]

I'm cool with whatever so long as it's vaugely humanoid.

[AccursedBiscuit]

Good point. Any volunteers?

Humans are good. So, our group of merry men finds themselves where? Coastal tribe? Inland tribe, maybe focused on woodworking or working the land. Depends on what kind of advantages we want them to have. Bountiful food resources, or maybe mining metal for infrastructure and military (if we have one). I suppose we could give them everything they could want. Pretty much start out with a golden age of advancement, get things going.