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I am reposting here what I wrote in the Writer's Block main thread, to give it more visibility.
Seeing that there are some people interested to write on a round robin/RPG story, but are driven away from the Vanguard Universe because of the complex, three years old history/continuity of that Universe, and seeing that as of now the various threads related to that Universe see just one or two posts a week, I am proposing to start a completely new round robin story, with no connection to the Vanguard Universe.
I am open to all suggestions, but I propose that to make it more story oriented, and less character oriented than the two Vanguard threads, there should be one rule: that no spin-off serie, solo stories about characters or teams featured in that new stories should be allowed. The new "universe" should live just in the main story.
Also, it would not at all replace the Vanguard Universe: I am still devoted to the narration of the group on La Perdita. Just, with the current rate of posting, I think there is the place for something else, especially for who has time to write, like myself now, but don't want to monopolize the Vanguard threads, and for who, being new, find vanguard too complicate.
Some people, like I man and Sammithc, have expressed their thoughs. I hope to hear more, and if there are at last five people interested to write, we can start to discuss ideas about the setting and then elect one to make the first post.
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Yeah, I'm interested. I'd have liked to get inolved in Vanguard, but it's just too complicated for me.
OOK OOK ACK EEK!
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I'd be interested, as long as we cut out all the extra details like long descriptions of buildings, security systems, and the like. We get enough of that with Vanguard.
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Oh, and I would also like no huge back-story involving the origins of life, the universe, the metagene, etc. Let's just begin where we begin, in a world more-or-less like our own, and let things go from there. Backstory is limiting.
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Hey, I only have one good character idea, and I already used it.
Thing is- I can’t spell or type. I spell so badly my spell check doesn’t even know what I was trying to spell. And I have five Eisners HAHAHAHHA!!
-Brian Michael Bendis
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Use it again. The focus here would be the story itself, not the characters.
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If this is going to be a superhero type genre, I think I'll actually create a character that can fly and has other superhero-ey powers. I've already got a swordsman and had a pulp adventurer and a time-traveling android. Maybe it's time for something a bit more mainstream, more powerful too.
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I'll contribute to this. What are the rules?
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Thing is- I can’t spell or type. I spell so badly my spell check doesn’t even know what I was trying to spell. And I have five Eisners HAHAHAHHA!!
-Brian Michael Bendis
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Quote:
The Time Trust said:
I'd be interested, as long as we cut out all the extra details like long descriptions of buildings, security systems, and the like. We get enough of that with Vanguard.
Whiner. 
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It seems there is some interest around the thing.
For Southpaw, there are no rules set yet, we have to make it. Some of us have a five year experience of writing round robin/rpg stories about superheroes of our creation, with an evolution from spoof/humorous style to a more "serious" tone.
The rules I propose are:
1) one main character for each poster
2) no solo stories or spin off allowed. The fictional universe that is the set of the story should be featured only in the story itself, to avoid overcomplication of the universe itself.
About the tone and the theme of the story, I have no preferences. I am interested into superheroes, sci fi, fantasy, alternative history, ancient history... but to say the truth, superheroes stories allow to explore ALL of those themes. About the tone, I must admit I am not really cut for humorous tone, due to "cultural barriers", that means being me living in Italy, I don't get much of American TV, sports, entrtainment (outside of big movie and TV serials), so I usaually miss many jokes and such.
So, yes, I prefer the Vanguard style opposed to the old MBL or JLR.
what I would be really interested into doing is a superheroes series where superheroes begins to appear in our world, and they are the only thing different from our reality. I mean, the world is exactly like our, without any kind of sci fi technology (no teleportation or antigravity, for example) and there are no fictional countrys and such.
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Quote:
Eurostar said:
It seems there is some interest around the thing.
For Southpaw, there are no rules set yet, we have to make it. Some of us have a five year experience of writing round robin/rpg stories about superheroes of our creation, with an evolution from spoof/humorous style to a more "serious" tone.
The rules I propose are:
1) one main character for each poster
2) no solo stories or spin off allowed. The fictional universe that is the set of the story should be featured only in the story itself, to avoid overcomplication of the universe itself.
About the tone and the theme of the story, I have no preferences. I am interested into superheroes, sci fi, fantasy, alternative history, ancient history... but to say the truth, superheroes stories allow to explore ALL of those themes. About the tone, I must admit I am not really cut for humorous tone, due to "cultural barriers", that means being me living in Italy, I don't get much of American TV, sports, entrtainment (outside of big movie and TV serials), so I usaually miss many jokes and such.
So, yes, I prefer the Vanguard style opposed to the old MBL or JLR.
what I would be really interested into doing is a superheroes series where superheroes begins to appear in our world, and they are the only thing different from our reality. I mean, the world is exactly like our, without any kind of sci fi technology (no teleportation or antigravity, for example) and there are no fictional countrys and such.
Yeah, that sounds Interesting. I'll admit, I've always preferred semi-serious stuff myself, due to living in England and only having the broadest idea of US Telly and such. And the idea of a very 'real' story rocks, as well.
OOK OOK ACK EEK!
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Sounds like a good idea, Euro.
If I might make one more suggestion -- instead of posting extensive "origin stories" showing how your character gets his/her powers, et cetera, just start right off with your character AFTER he's already got his powers and such. He can always fill in his origin story in an abbreviated conversation with other characters. Otherwise we'll be glutted with 10 origin stories at once, and the MAIN story will get lost in the shuffle.
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I completely agree.
Last edited by The Time Trust; 2004-10-08 5:36 AM.
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Quote:
The Time Trust said:
Sounds like a good idea, Euro.
If I might make one more suggestion -- instead of posting extensive "origin stories" showing how your character gets his/her powers, et cetera, just start right off with your character AFTER he's already got his powers and such. He can always fill in his origin story in an abbreviated conversation with other characters. Otherwise we'll be glutted with 10 origin stories at once, and the MAIN story will get lost in the shuffle.
Or have the character getting his/her powers during the story.
What's important is, like TTT suggests, to commit to the story itself, instead of using it like an excuse to explore just his own character.
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OOK OOK ACK EEK!
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I'd prefer to write something contemporary.
I wonder what everyone thinks about writing a finite story. Why create another massive continuity that will alienate readers and new contributers? Maybe we could run this over the course of a year and in the final couple of months we could all get together and coordinate some kind of conclusion.
If people want the story to go on indefinitely then I'm fine with that too. I'll contribute for as long as I can. The character I have in mind has a limited shelf life anyway.
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Southpaw suggestion is interesting, because it puts a definite enphasis over the story instead of characters trying to be one cooler than the other.
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Quote:
Southpaw said:
I'd prefer to write something contemporary.
I wonder what everyone thinks about writing a finite story. Why create another massive continuity that will alienate readers and new contributers? Maybe we could run this over the course of a year and in the final couple of months we could all get together and coordinate some kind of conclusion.
If people want the story to go on indefinitely then I'm fine with that too. I'll contribute for as long as I can. The character I have in mind has a limited shelf life anyway.
I like the idea of a story with a defined length, but I'd also like to something quite long term. Maybe we could do like, say, Dr. Who or season 1 of Angel and have individual adventures featuring the same cast but minimising continuity and keeping outside villains to a minimum. That way we could avoid alienating new readers and still carry on writing.
OOK OOK ACK EEK!
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I think the problems with continuity arise when one starts to create things like the world-wide metahuman hate, the seizure of Manhattan, or fictional countries like Mandelovia declaring war on the world. All things very cool (they are what I like most in the Vanguard Universe), but that makes you unable to jump in the story if you were not here from the beginning.
If we keep the "real" world as the setting, and the "superhuman" characters just the ones we writes about, then the thing should be a lot more easy to follow.
About the format, I would prefer a long story than a series of shorter individual adventures, but about that I say, let's start the thing and see how it evolves. Round robins tends to live as they want, opposed as to how the writers would.
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Cool. Oh, and an idea on back-story. At the JLR we have a whole thread dedicated to bios and such like. It's a great way of constructing intricate backstories without bogging people down 
OOK OOK ACK EEK!
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Yes, I think a "secret origins" thread could be acceptable. What's important is that the convulute backstory of a charater should not:
1) alter the past history of the planet
2) being needed to understand what's going on in the story thread.
As usual, to make the story easy to be jumped in by any new reader/writer.
Are you all agreeing over setting the story in the "real" world, where our characters, wheter superpowered or not, are the only thing different from reality?
That implicitly means that superpowers have to be caused by mutation or mystical orogins, no jet-pack for flying or laser gauntlets. Also, if a clone is created today, he will be just one year old next year, no instatly adult clones around, please!
If we all agreee over this, I guess anybody willing to is entitled to start the story. I have started the Vanguard Universe, this time I simply want to follow.
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My character is an engineered mutant with a bizarre twist. I was planning to introduce him into the story with some kind of demonstration of what he's capable of, so that it forms a natural part of the narrative, and then let the rest come out gradually as we develop the story - no convoluted flashbacks or anything like that. I think it's better to leave a few questions unanswered.
If other posters want to do a secret origins thread then I'm OK with it.
Who's actually committed to this?
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Well, I'm in. My character (not, by the way, called Spandex Monkey Man, that's just pushing it) is a former member of the British Special Branch, an internal police unit that investigates really hush-hush stuff (a bit like the FBI for you yankees, and I don't know if Italy has an equivalent). Splitting from the Branch after the death of his parents at the hands of organised crime, he now fights evil using just his powers of deduction and special branch training!
OOK OOK ACK EEK!
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Cool characters.
Looking at who has answered at the post, I think me, Southpaw, SpandexMonkeyMan and TTT are the one most interested. IndestructibleMan claimed to be interested answering at the post I did in the top forum thread, and also Sammitch showed interest, altough he has not posted in the current Vanguard thread, so I guess he is very busy.
Also Pariah showed up a few post above.
I think we are enough people for starting this thing, maybe more people will show once it has begun.
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Cool. What'll we call the team, and who'll be the leader? Should we run a 'first poster lead for that story only scheme' or a permanent leader?
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I think we have to choose first if there is a team existing at the start of the story (and thus with a name and a leader) or if the team is formed at some point of the story.
If it's the latter the name and the election of the leader would become matter of the story.
As for the scheme for the leading role, I think first we should see what kind of team is: if it's an underground group of outlowed vigilantes a rotating leading seat could be good, while if it is a global spanning peacekeeping force I guess the election of the leader will be a political matter, with the bigger countries of the world trying to impose their will.
MY scheme for starting the story would be: we create a sort of threat, that normal police forces or military can't solve by themselves, that cause the characters to meet, let the story play, and at the end we decide: if it was a sort of one shot, there is not even the need to find a name for the team, while if we want to carry the group of characters for other stories, we find a status and a name for the team.
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How about a team of Super-Midgets? 
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Quote:
Mini-TTT said:
How about a team of Super-Midgets?
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when will this be starting?
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That's a good point. Eurostar?
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For me, even now. Like I said before, I started, three years ago, Vanguard, so I would not take the reign even over this, but if no one other wants, I could write the beginning. Let me know.
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Initially, I'm thinking about contributing some one off stories to Writer's Block now that it's broadened its scope beyond 'Hero fic'.
I might be interested in joining this story later if that's ok.
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Someone needs to come up with a title for this story and then, rather than talking about it, we need to get it up and running.
I don't know what the etiquette is for writing this kind of collaborative fiction, so I was hoping to follow someone elses lead, however if no one else begins the story then I will.
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Quote:
Southpaw said:
Someone needs to come up with a title for this story and then, rather than talking about it, we need to get it up and running.
I don't know what the etiquette is for writing this kind of collaborative fiction, so I was hoping to follow someone elses lead, however if no one else begins the story then I will.
Yeah. Far as I can tell, the only convention is you can only introduce our own character into the story. After everyone's in, anybody can write with anybody's character. Kinda hard to think of a name, but hey, someone should be able to.
Maybe you could start, Southpaw. After all, it's only fair that the newbie gets to kick things off
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If you want to start it, Southpaw, go on.
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I don't really want to start this, but I'm going to anyway otherwise we're just going to keep talking in circles until our enthusiasm evapourates.
I've called it 'Toughened Glass'. I don't really like the name and I hope that one of us can come up with something better.
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Great post, Southpaw. Really nice intro, with a great dash of mystery.
I've posted to Toughened Glass now. I've tried to maintain the mystery. The plan is for Zachariah to lead to Southpaw's boy, and then maybe into the main storyline.
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Very good. I will post later today, and I hope more will join.
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