Current War Guidelines and Discussion

[dark fuschia]

Indeed! You have only yourself to blame.

[sir archely]

Looks like df and amos are too cool for the current war and have to resort to writing in the other war in order to be elitist writers.

[Amos]

That war had clearly expired. Also it was silly. Thanks for reminding me though, now we can get on to the next war which I devised a couple of minutes ago. Something different again, something very different... Which I will summarize with a neat, orderly list.... It might be a bit much, actually, so let me know if it's completely stupid and I'll think of something better...

• First of all, we're going to split up into two teams of three writers each (anyone who leave at this stage will be lynched)
• Secondly, chess. I'm not sure about Eyre, Arch and DF but the rest of us know how to play. For every post that you write, you will make a move for your team on a chessboard. How you keep track of the game is up to you. What this means is that at least one dimension of the war will be an actual battle. There will be a team victory, as well as a potential individual victory if someone makes a move that puts the other team in checkmate.
• Thing the third: stanzas. The chess move you make will determine how you write, which should make the chess side of things seem less arbitrary. As you hopefully already know each of the squares on a chessboard corresponds to a letter and a number. For this war, the letter of the square you move a piece to determines how many lines you have to write, and the number of the square determines how many syllables each line has to be. It would be no good to have one-line, one-syllable poems, so A will equal 4 and H will equal 12, on the letter side of things; and for the numbers, 1 will be 4, 8 will be 12. Hope that's not too confusing! As an example, moving your knight to C3 will require that you write a stanza 7 lines long with 7 syllables per line. It doesn't have to rhyme! This is the 21st century after all.
• Fourdly. One character per person. Six characters who all serve in the Jade Palace under the Empress of the Moon, and who are all maneuvering to achieve some private goal. The Empress could easily grant any wish, but she has locked herself up in her private chambers on the highest floor of the palace and refuses to see anyone. Your character doesn't necessarily have to be aware of their private goal, since what I mean by their "goal" is their Plot. Pick one from The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Whether you ever reveal or resolve it or not is up to you but it must to some extent determine your characters' actions.
• Fivish. Your character must be associated with certain symbols. One will be an animal, one will be a colour, one will be a musical instrument, and one more will be something completely random. You must never reference other writers' characters directly in your stanzas. They can only be invoked using one or more of their symbols.

I can come up with more rules and conditions too. Like moving from a piece from a white square to another white square reflects certainty in the mind of your character, and from white to black, doubt. Black to black, despair; and black to white, hope. But things might get too rigid, although rigidity is obviously what I'm trying to emphasize this time around.

Comments? Suggestions? Anyone even remotely interested? I'd really love to give this a try, mostly because it seems like it would be fairly difficult and could take a long time to finish. A single post might potentially take days to compose, given that we have lives to live, which is fine by me. It suits the tone I have in mind.

[Apoc]

Also it was silly.

Dude, when you and the fuschian delight write together it always degenerates into sillyness, the rest of us have become accustomed to it but if you look at near all the previous wars, you both go off on flights of fanciful mad hattery which though entertaining leaves little room for others to join and seeing as you're both the most active writers you dominate the war story and take it away from its premise. I really liked your premise of The War of Something or Other a curse and locked up princesses with beasts on the prowl...that was great but degenerated into the musings and weird relationship of Yuvna and Joshua Phoenix with guests. Suddenly there are cars and pizza deliveries and well it lost me for sure as much as i like these refelctionlike posts of your characters it isn't exactly a war tale for us all to collaborate on. War of Dream and Dread again really liked the premise and new you'd go silly so had a character that could be silly too...but again you both went off on a wild journey away from the premise, loved the idea of the Horn Brothers btw...but yeah that ended up as Gorax and Tiffany ride off into the sunset leaving an immobile titan and an army of flying saucers outside the city of fane where the Horn Bro's didn't bat an eyelid and mechanised robots stood guard ready for battle. ~shrugs~ at least with the war of power i managed to complete my lil rescue arcwith arch heh that was the last war i actually felt was a war, lots of writers, same world, intermingling with each other for the most part, i should really finish an ending to that one. I liked my ending for Queen of Fire...hmmm i may go write an ending for WoP actually...

As to your idea, i want some of whatever it is your smoking i don't think it'd work though, first off ever tried playing mass-multiplayer chess? It's a disaster, also keeping track would be a nightmare.

I personally would like to write in a war with a good outline that gives everybody goals and direction, i think someone taking charge as a director of sorts (we could switch director by acts) but we assemble a cast pre-diving into the story where we have a premise for the first act and folk could write for roles that are pre-set, here's a basic example-

premise- for act I - a darklord has kidnapped a princess and folk set off to rescue her. Act ends when protagonists get to dark lords lair.
Act I

Writing pair I - darklord/minion and princess.
Goals -
Princess - try annoy darklord as much as possible/try escape?
Darklord or minion - keep princess imprisoned and establish reasons for kidnap.

Writing pair II - protagonists
Goals - establish a reason to go on quest to free princess or kill darklord, establish reason for needing to team up.

Writing pair III - world/supporting characters
Goals - populate story with sub-characters relevant to tale being told, can be anything like introduce a shiny knight come to rescue the princess for the antagonist to deal with or a large dragon for the protagonists to get around or another cell mate for the princess or a barkeep to deal with the protagonists whilst they travel through a town...

Act II new director lays continuing premise and goals for already established chars.
Act ends with protagonists getting to dark lord or princess.

Act III new director chooses how to draw the tale to a close.

Basically each writer takes on a role and creates their own characters for it, like say if amos was the dark lord he could make yuvna the big bad and be free to choose why Yuvna had kidnapped a princess, whoever is the princess could write their character to actually enjoy being imprisoned, this would be unbenownst of course to those coming to the rescue but would make for a funny final act but this writing pair would interact as would the others and then we'd draw it all together for the finale.

but yeah, i think we need direction rather than just sporadically coming up with a story as we go and having it set so each writer has a role that is part of the same story as everyone else, rather than writing short tales on seperate pages.

[sir archely]

at least with the war of power i managed to complete my lil rescue arcwith arch heh

eh? I've no idea what you're talking about; i didn't write in the war of power.

Also, i'm up for trying Amos' chess-war idea. I can play and and do understand chess, with any skill is the question. I even took lessons at some point in the far distant past. It's been years since I actually played though.

And apoc, yeah, it'd be kinda messy with 3v3, but the keeping track thing might be easy enough to do. I think I could have an online pic up which would keep track. I'd have to update it every move, but no big deal. It would be a slow war, but i'm okay with that. Plus, given the messiness, it might cover up some of my rustiness in play. the chess game would definitely be background, since it would likely be a fairly unsophisticated bludgeoning game.

Would we have set play/write order, or just anyone on team black could go when it's black's turn?

[Apoc]

eh? I've no idea what you're talking about; i didn't write in the war of power.

bah, i'm tired and got you mixed up, it has been a long while...i really liked that story though and those characters, nacht and his insane toymaker...i recall that we had actually planned an epic finale but never got round to it...hmmm i think i'll give that a retelling and finish it up, i dislike leaving stories unfinished.

i'm not up for this chess idea, so i is out...i think a main factor is i really like chess (still bugged you beat me amos) and know i'd get annoyed if someone made a poor move on my team, it's about setting traps and thinking ahead, i'd def get bugged if i set up a check mate and someone else killed it.

Anyways, wish you best of luck with it.

[Amos]

Would we have set play/write order, or just anyone on team black could go when it's black's turn?

Set order. Structure is key.

Apoc, I don't really understand your grudge against silliness. The war is a game, not a novel in progress, and fuschia and I have simply been persistent in our efforts to expand the spirit of play that it embodies. What you call silliness and randomness I perceive as experiment and evolution.

edit: Well, looks we're down to five potential players...

[Amos]

i'm not up for this chess idea, so i is out...i think a main factor is i really like chess (still bugged you beat me amos) and know i'd get annoyed if someone made a poor move on my team, it's about setting traps and thinking ahead, i'd def get bugged if i set up a check mate and someone else killed it.

Are you really sure you wont join in though? The chess part is not really that important after all, it's kind of like the die used in D&D. I was actually hoping the formal and fairly oriental flavor of the general design might appeal to you...

[Apoc]

Apoc, I don't really understand your grudge against silliness.

I enjoy reading the silliness,many times the war has given me genuine laughs aplenty, i like the silliness and wit you guys often go into...but when you start a story with quite a serious premise, and i set up a character i want to explore in a dark tale and it begins and we get a couple pages in and then it degenerate into slapstick...well i can't write to that, it kills my contribution to a tale. The last few wars i knew in advance would be silly, hence Sinn and her being mad and all and sprouting mitch hedberg and bill hick influenced dialogue...but yeah, i have no grudge toward the silliness, i guess what puts me off is trailing off by individuals on flights of fancy that pretty much destroys the setting, tone and storylines set up.

It's like going to the cinema with mates and midway through the film a couple of them get up and leave to go to the pub whilst another starts to talk about footy and i'm like, "hey i thought we where gonna watch this movie?" I wouldn't mind going to the pub or talking football but i thought we where doing this, no?

The idea is appealing and i like it but think it'd be massively difficult to maintain and requires far more effort than all previous wars...and seeing as we can't even maintain what should be simple, yeah i'm sure...i'm a vet of too many failed wars, i'll only write in ones i think have a good chance that i'll be able to contribute and get at least a small arc completed for a character before it fizzles out...i will as always be an avid reader but i'm not gonna be in on this one.

[Amos]

I'm tired of simple wars myself, but what you've said Apoc has given me some ideas on how to make this work. This is how it will be:

I've selected a game which will serve as the basis for all that happens. I haven't watched it beyond the first few moves and neither should any of you. I'll post the first ten moves in here and what they mean for the writers, and if we make it that far I'll update it after that, with perhaps some modifications if necessary. No teams, since with five people it's pointless. Order of posting will be: Myself, Arch, Whoever posts in here next, and after that, and after that.

Before we begin give some thought to your character, and choose your symbols then post those here. Posting in here a brief description of your character, including their name, station in the palace, style of dress, etc. will be useful. Oh and I revoke what I said about not directly referencing other characters. That's now a question of individual style.

The square colors will determine the tone of what you write, and also so will the type of piece used. There are six different piece types, so each will be assigned six of the Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations as defined by Georges Polti. Thus your stanza must include one of the appropriate Dramatic Situations, which you can choose yourself and represent to your liking. (edit: I just remembered that there's a lot of pawns, so they will get more situations)

If on your turn an enemy piece is taken your stanza must show some kind of victory for your character. If on your turn a castle occurs you have to write two stanzas, one for the king and one for the rook. You can take as long as you need to get your stanza written, and I might even start another war at the same time if it is slow enough.

We are in the Jade Palace serving under the Illuminating Gaze of the Empress of the Moon, in no specific region or point in history, and each stanza is dedicated to her in the hope of earning her favor, although she has locked herself up at this time and doesn't respond to the parchments that we slip discretely under her door... Oh, and Bonus Points will be symbolically awarded if you reference chess somehow during a stanza

And now I have to finish preparing this and think of a clever name. An entirely new thread may be necessary...

[Eyreplenh]

Well, I know chess and will play. (I play like a chronic paranoid -so whilst chances are I wont beat you, yet greater chances of you being bored to death before having me drop that king on it's side. Did I hear remis? thought so) Probably won't have my char and props before monday, but yeah...

[dark fuschia]

Can I watch for a while? I am busy as crazy and I don't want to commit to a war where no one else can post until I have posted. I am a commitophobe.

[Eyreplenh]

So. I've had the audacity to post something in the war section.

It's not motivated by the vast success of the last war where I had the first post, haha, but rather by a short story I'm working on in Norwegian.

I was at school one day and read something about how some people were forced to sell their houses and move away from a small area due to the construction of a small lake. It was very weird, but I think the story was from reality. Either way, I started daydreaming sometime later and dreamt about this world where there was forest almost everywhere. Then I had the idea that this forestation was government controlled, and that it happened like this: A party somewhat weirdly focused on forests is elected to power here in Norway. The party is elected on the grounds of a very charismatic leader and because the party has a pretty basic and sensible basis of politics aside from the forest-focus.

The party governs with success for a couple of years before starting to implement a new directive. Small towns and villages are labeled areas for forestation, and no new houses or constructions are allowed within these limits. The current inhabitants and people of these places are not forced to move or anything like that, they are allowed to improve their houses and do what they want, but they are not allowed to build anything new. If all the residents of a house dies, the state automatically buys the house, at a generous price, from any potential heirs. Then, the house is dismantled and levelled, and then trees are planted on the grounds. It's a slow process, and because it is rather slow and peaceful, noone seems to mind or oppose it very much. Of course, over time, critical points are reached where small places just doesn't have the numbers any more to go on. The government resolves this by being helpful with food-distribution and other necessities for the people that wants to remain, while those wanting to leave are offered profitable and practical solutions for a transition to life in one of the bigger cities.

Now, my short story centers around a norwegian visiting the just-leveled house of his grandparents in the early years of this forest-revolution, but thinking around it I thought it might be fun to make a warlike thing of it. I don't have much in terms of rules or goals for the writing, just to have fun with some experiments of the mind of living in a different world.

Now, my first post included mention of «foresters» that obviously is something different. What they are is up to each and everyone that (hopefully!) wants to participate. Also, the post takes place 100 years after these forest movements popped up, but anyone can write from whatever period they would like.

Seemingly it has been a peaceful process, but maybe someone has a different idea? The foresters appearing could be a clue something was orchestrated, or was they something that arrived/developed after forests started to spread? Maybe someone wants to write up thoughts about the environmental/physical effects of the expanded forests, maybe write the diary of a lone bastard our in the wilderness. I don't care much, I just thought it might be fun to experiment with a world of this kind... Also, the forest-thing is a spreading movement, but maybe it hasn't reached all of the world. Maybe there are people fiercely fighting against the movement? I don't know (yet)

I just want to explore this place, and if someone else wants to join in the expedition, please do

(otherwise I'll just add it to the already long list of failures, hehe)