For Want of a Nail

[jeregenest]

Okay, what if we say the first turn of For Want of a Nail will be due next Tuesday, thats the 16th. I've already created a wiki page. Hopefully no one minds its a sub directory off of taci.

Is this workable to everyone? Any additional game negotiations?

And there is a community forwantofanail

Comments

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

Workable for me! I just have one quick question: what direction should we be going in with names of entries? Should we be naming things by breaking-point (i.e., "Battle of Waterloo," "Boston Fire of 1872"), and then discussing the ramifications of those breaking points, or should we be naming things by the alternate-world name or something else entirely? Or does it not really matter and we should just go with what works?

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I think I've decided it doesn't matter and one of the interesting things will be seeing patterns develop in naming conventions. I think organic does us well.

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

Very well! I look forward to seeing how this progresses. It's been so long since I've done a lexicon! Huzzah!

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Do people have strong feelings on tone/"realism"? Is historical plausibility a goal here at all, or is it nanotech and alien superheroes and Sioux Star Destroyers vs. Reptoid Battle Mechs at dawn? Or do we just play all that by ear?

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling, though I could be wrong, that it'll start out strange and get more "realistic" as it goes back in time. Like, it's easier to justify Hitler's Giant MegaBots of Doom crushing the Bionic French Resistance when you can phantom-cite justification for the existence of such things than it is to justify Alexander's Flying Chariot Legions with citations to already filled-in entries from later in history.

If that makes sense.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I'm all for allowing the lexicon to discover that stuff as we go. Though knowing our circle and the way lexicons work it may be a good mixture of both.

[shiffer.livejournal.com]

Do we have/need cosmological ground rules?

Is this alternate worlds, time travel or some combination thereof? Can history be changed (i.e. something like a Time War is possible)? Do we have a Qualified Observer law? How do we manage consistent entries when history itself can be changed (that one may be easier then I'm thinking right now)?

Also, I echo Rob's quary regarding the level of realism/tone we're going for. I could go either way.

The start date works great for me, but Tuesday/Thursday is a bit tight for me. Can't we make it Tuesday/Friday?

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I think it clearly states itself as a cross-tie/infinite worlds model instead of a time travel model. So in my mind that totally defines what happens. Every breakpoint in history is a different world.

I can do Tuesday/Friday.

[head58.livejournal.com]

I might suggest you set a policy on calling "dibs" on pre-existing phantoms, since that was such an issue in the lexicon I ran.

I'm very much looking forward to reading all this.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

I have a strong but essentially arbitrary desire to keep things on the plausible side, at least on the "plausible if you squint" side. Alien invaders I wouldn't blink at, but Tesla developing nanomachines to make everyone immortal, not so much.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Already exists (http://www.innocence.com/games/taci/Main/LexiconFAQ) one:

If there is a specific phantom you'd like to write, wait until the proper round occurs and then edit the round page to just include a statement of dibbing and your name. Naturally, the intent of dibbing an entry is so that you actually write it -- if you don't during that round, your dib expires.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that didn't do much to quell the problems I had, but it is there.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Hate to say it but the problems o your lexicon were less on the rule side than on the social contract buy-in side. Frankly NEB had players who never cared to follow what few rules and guidelines are there for lexicons.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Myself included, I suppose. I think some of the rules (or unwritten guidelines) of lexicons hamper creativity and place arbitrary restrictions on the process.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Yeah thats why it is a form of constrained writing. The idea is that through constraining certain aspects you bring out others.

Group writing exercises can take many form, the idea behind Lexico i to get a very specific output. Other constrained writng formats seek to produce other results. And nonconstrained writing has other limitations and advantages. All of which is good, but if you say your doing soemthing its always a good idea to follow through until you decide to do something else.

[head58.livejournal.com]

We've had this discussion before and I don't want to turn it into an argument. I'm just saying that I chose to run a lexicon differently than you do, and that's no different from two people approaching runnning any other kind of game with differing emphases and the tightness of constraints. I ran mine looser than you do because that was the style I preferred. Sorry it didn't work for you.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Yeah thats where I'm coming from too. I think.

[melissagay.livejournal.com]

AIEEE!!! ::panic, panic::

Ok, I'm in.

[bluegargantua]

Seeing as how I have copius free time.

Sure.

But this better be the foundation for a Narcisist game (assuming they ever publish).

later
Tom

[bluegargantua]

Actually, I'm unclear on one point.

Each entry is an alternate Earth. How do the phantoms figure in? Is like "this is simliar to BlahBlahBlah in WorldX" or is it "Because of BlahBlahBlah in WorldX, we have the timeline in CurrentRoundWorld"?

I'm not quite sure how the phantoms play into this type of Lexicon.

later
Tom

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

There have to be phantoms. Phantoms are worlds. How you link them in is up to you. I can see both options you mentioned plus a whole host more.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Or "blah blah blah then the Ultra-Vegemites from [[World X]] broke the cross time barrier and attacked..."

[vaklam.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on that one. There's an ill-defined and extremely fuzzy plausibility line I don't want to cross. It's a "know it when I see it" kind of thing.

[vaklam.livejournal.com]

WooHoo!

[foxtown.livejournal.com]

I'm in.

Haven't really done this before, since it was picking up when I was starting school, so I hope that I do it right and don't screw it up...

like with axes or anything...

[(Anonymous)]

Or Swordflame Flameswords....

Tom