From alt.pub.dragons-inn Tue Aug 30 16:45:52 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7597 Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!src.dec.com!crl.dec.com!jac.zko.dec.com!leggy.zk3.dec.com!orb!not-for-mail From: hutch@ibeam.jf.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [CIA] ADMIN DIVERSION Date: 26 Aug 1994 19:07:23 -0000 Organization: Duchy of Wabesylvan Obspauk Lines: 60 Sender: news@Orb.Nashua.NH.US Message-ID: X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL11] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Folks writing on the CIA thread (International Advisors etc.) You're doing something which hasn't been carried off very well in the past -- a continuing thread based on interactive writing. There's one small drawback with this. Net lag. You can find yourself in a situation where your character hasn't had a chance to do something, or where you've been left behind, or been party to something that you would never do. The usual practice on the Dragon's Inn has been to collect feedback for anything that you write using another person's char, before you post. This requires email, or a mailing list. This also slows the thread down a little, or in some cases quite a lot. Some guidelines you might want to adopt, based on the things you've done that seem to work, and the few MUD type things that I've seen that weren't intolerably stupid: 1) never ever write actions or reactions for other people's chars. You don't know who they are, what all their secrets are, how they view the world. If you have to get a reaction, do it in quick-turn email, or post what you did and wait. This one's REALLY hard to do, but it's the only way to avoid stomping on people's toes. 2) Don't mess with shared space. Can also be written, don't piss in the common soup pot. If you're going to have something dramatic happen, then make sure that it happens in a way that won't mess up the world you're writing in, or be prepared to take the consequences. Consequences can be things like, your characters get ignored, you get treated as an illusion (loudly and with great disdain), you get abusive email, or even other people interfering with your thread because you've stomped on theirs. The biggest thing to remember about this shared story space here, is that there is a history, a lot of background and a number of people who don't want it randomly wrecked. If you want to have something Big happen, propose it to the group in an ADMIN posting, and see what the feedback says. But be advised: Demon invasions have been done to the point of being cliche's. Dark Lords have been done to the point of being cliche's. Dark Corners are cliche' but accepted as in-jokes. High tech is really more appropriate elsewhere unless you're willing to have your character deal with the fact that Nexus is a world where magic works. Oh yeah, and if you wouldn't expect to get away with something in downtown where-you-live, then don't expect to get away with it in Generica. (This does not mean you shouldn't play thieves, jerks, etc. but just expect that at some point, if you run into other people, they may react to you as they would to a real thief, jerks, etc.) 3) Keep it short. It's easier to fit in responses in short chunks. I know I'm not very good at this. 4) when it gets unmanageable, shift to email coordination.