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YH
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Use this thread to share, organize, and discuss ideas and plots, or to ask questions.

 

Guidelines

If You Need Help, Ask - That's what this is here for, so don't be shy.

Be Respectful - Critiques are welcome, but don't be ill-mannered about it.

No Ubering - God-moding Mary Sue's are generally frowned upon. OPs can make exceptions.

No Hijacking - Don't commandeer, alter, remove or kill off characters that aren't yours without explicit permission. NO EXCEPTIONS. Instances of serious injuries and/or deaths should be worked out beforehand between the participants. Abandoned characters can be ignored and written out after 7 days of inactivity without prior notice from their owners.

 

Tips and Suggestions

On Collaborative Writing

We don't really consider what we do to be roleplaying in the traditional sense (ie people pretending to be other people); we write stories for fun, and we've found that it's really fun to do it together. There are no hard rules, and even the guidelines above can be bent or broken if deemed appropriate. We try to keep it a democratic process, and discuss and decide things in advance. Communication is integral in making sure things go smoothly and maintaining a level of quality.

On Stats and Formats

Most of us don't use character sheets, but if you want to, go right ahead. We trust each other and ourselves to know who our characters are and what they're capable of, and some of us prefer to keep some mystery and let them develop during the course of the story more naturally. But if you just have to post that epic bio, you may, and feel free to also put up other content such as pics or even theme music.

As far as format goes, so long as you're a decent writer you should do fine. There is no post order, and you can always go back an edit or add to a post so long as it hasn't been responded to yet (this avoids double-posting or unnecessary bumping). Posts can be as long as you like; typically we use an action/reaction style, where one person makes an entry and the next person reacts and so on as they see fit. You may also post again directly after a response, but be mindful of giving others the chance to react, and try not to get too far ahead as to leave other people behind.

On Critiques and Comments

In the past we have had a problem with cluttering up threads with lots of irrelevant chatter, and so we've decided that you should only make an OOC comment if you contribute to the story with your post. Even if it's only a small response to the previous post, we find that this effectively controls comment spamming. OOC comments should also be kept brief, if you want to discuss something at length, do so via PM or here in the Workshop.

 

If you have any other suggestions or questions, PM me or post them below.

 

Bibliophael's picture
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Joined: 01/03/2011

 Am I correct in understanding that this will be a place in which we may correct our understanding of the more obscure and confounding regions of Elder Scrolls lore with a lucidity that cannot be found in the riddles and half-truths of the extensive mythologies? If this is the case, I can see myself becoming rather dependant upon it.

Lady N's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2010

I guess we can help with lore here if needed, but this is the Roleplay section, so the Workshop is intended for roleplay-related help, questions, and planing. 

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Joined: 07/21/2011

If anyone is ready, we can just start the brainstorming now, that's what the section is here for! I did research on both the Fourth Era and Akavir (both with the help of TIL itself) and would be interested in doing a storyline in either. The Character I would use would probably depend on which country we would be in or what the general goal of the storyline. As I mentioned in the "Wanting to Get Involved" Thread, I have two characters that I am wanting to work on, on top of not being picky about the RP itself.

YH
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This is only happening because you wanted it to, I'm just here for support until things get rolling.

I'm running short on time lately, but I'll try to update this with tips and info. Meanwhile, since we already did a story in Akavir I'm leaning towards something else. However, an Akaviri invasion is technically not in Akavir.

Laria's picture
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I'm also more for a setting somewhere else than Akavir. Ionith was dear to me, even though it sadly came to an end somehow, and I liked my characters there a lot. The whole atmosphere is still fresh in my memory and it would feel strange to do another Akavir RP after it.

In any case, I'm watching this thread. It's nice to see the Workshop is back.

Jeroic's picture
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 I actually think that, until Skyrim comes out, it'd be easier to do an "early eras" sort of RP. Post-Skyrim, all bets are off and I'll be pitching a "collapse of the empire" story left and right, but until we get a better idea of the immediate post-Oblivion circumstance I'm mostly leaving that time alone. 

 

Hmm... The Camoran Usurper sounds like a good time. The Five Year War has an in-game book taking place in that time and place but by no means explores the war itself in detail. The chaotic times immediately before Arena are ripe for the plucking. It's not that there aren't any good ideas, it's an over-abundance of really good unexplored territory that makes it so hard to choose. 

Lady N's picture
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I'd go back further. Rise of the Alessian Order (which really needs a better name) - wonderful opportunities to roleplay crazy religious fanaticism or its opposite (or its mirror on the other side), almost infinite potential for worldbuilding. The early days of Tiber Septim - the man, the legend; his companions, his opponents. The Ra Gada - make way! It could be fun to revisit the story of Arena - tell it in an epic style unconstricted by technology, span it over 10 years, cover everything from court politics to spy stories to war. 

 

In terms of character, how would ya'll feel if I played smaller parts depending on the situation rather than one continuous character? Call me postmodern, but I've never been a fan of writing a long character sheet and sticking with tradition in general. Roleplays are more like colaborative stories in my mind. 

Laria's picture
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Lady N wrote:
 

Roleplays are more like colaborative stories in my mind. 

 

So they are to me. And YH has often done small roles and multiple characters at the same time. It would certainly not be a problem, it is all about the story, as you say. I prefer one major character for myself, but I also like adding small characters to make it more dynamic.

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 Yeah, we tended to not even bother with character sheets by the end of it. We would just trust each other to stay consistent and not to uber or mary sue. 

 

I like the full Arena retelling idea. 

YH
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Laria wrote:

Lady N wrote:
 

Roleplays are more like colaborative stories in my mind. 

So they are to me.

We literally defined them as such on the old forum.

I find character sheets irrelevant, not like we're really keeping track of stats or anything, but if it suits you to use them you certainly may feel free.

There will never be a limit to character number or involvement, every contribution is welcome so long as it doesn't detract from the fun, which is the main goal in all projects. Y'all have some ambitious ideas, though, I hope you're taking that into consideration.

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Call me vain but I'd like an ageless character. Too bad my only options are vampirism or another test subject from Tel Fyr.

Jeroic's picture
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 If you can come up with a good way to balance it, generally we don't mind if it fits the story. Sometimes there's no way to do it, which would mean that if you had a specific character in mind, tuck him or her away somewhere safe until he or she can be used. 

YH
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There's certainly other ways than vampirism to have an immortal character; Tome of Life, a story on the old forum, had a large sub-plot devoted to a main character's use of the dark arts to prolong his lifespan and reverse his infirmities.

So long as your character isn't ridiculously overpowered in some way or so long as drama and tension can be maintained with his situation, I don't see it being an issue.

 

btw I updated the intro post (finally)

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Joined: 07/21/2011

I'm gone for two days and the brainstorm pours! I see the good point about not picking anything Post-Oblivion, with the obvious being... We don't know what happens... Stories of Agelessness and Immortality are among my favorite Role Play niches, especially ones concerning Vampires, since I had an old RP Character that was a Slayer of the sort, but anything from Vamprisim to Necromancy to Daedra-Worship-Transcendence (ie. Mankar Camoran's Paradise) have all fascinated me (In reality, I'm serious, I love that crap). But, I was also thinking that the RolePlay doesn't neccessarily have to be so large... Almost... Movie-Like. When you throw Magic into any storyline (which TES has a lot of, obviously), there's room for anything. Demonic Possession, a Demon haunting a home or Guild house, A Final Destination-esque systematic attempted killing of all the characters through supernatural events (ie. cave crumbling on missions or random horse slaughters, drinks turning to poisoned-blood and so on...) I've always been a fan of Ray Bradbury's writing style, so often, when I write, I emulate him... Creating medium-long stories, but with such deep, intricate detail, that the story seems longer, as will be of my RP Posts, so something that I can play with in that respect (ie. witnessing a war scene, a murder, a ceremony) will not only allow for deeper writing, but help dim RP storys. Not all tales of glory are epic quests of unknown lands. Sometimes the unknown hides behind what we see everyday, for example, the person you sit next to at the Chapel everyday has drawn your face because he/she is madly in love with you and when you get a new boy/girlfriend, they wind up dead... Where to start looking? Dwell on that forum-buddies, let me know what you think.

YH
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I'm just waiting for a choice to be made for setting.

Fugu23's picture
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Like yon roleplays of old, I'm for starting with a setting and basic premise and rolling along with the punches, making up the story as we go. We tended to do that anyways and I guess things just get complicated like that.

Here's an idea for a setting, simple and easy to develop into a variety of other things: Bandit camp somewhere in the wilderness. It's not very TIL and it doesn't have any time-traveling or Zero Summing (at least right off the bat. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Ammon :P ) but we can mold that into whatever we wanted.

 

You could really pick anything, though. I don't want to influence this much since I'm working 40 hour weeks.

quirk's picture
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Joined: 06/28/2010

*emerges from his shallow lurking grave*

 

Hello, everyone. Of course, I'm certainly interested in participating here myself, since it looks like things are jumpstarting once again. It's been a while, hasn't it?

YH
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OMG QUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRK!!11!two!! Yay quirk's back! Hooray!

We missed ya, buddy, even if you are a zombie.

Fugu23 wrote:

Like yon roleplays of old, I'm for starting with a setting and basic premise and rolling along with the punches, making up the story as we go.

Second'd, simple seems to have worked best in the past, both with AC and Tides. I'm not hosting, though, so I'll leave the final decisions up to Reg and whoever.

Hope things get to gettin' soon, I'm all excited now that the old gang's all here.

Laria's picture
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Hi Q, nice to see you again. ^^

I have no problem with vampire characters. I love vampires and have played several before, but I'm saving my latest vampire for another RP.

I agree with Fugu that the setting should be very simple and easy to go with. In previous roleplays these were a harbor, a shack in the snowy mountains, a forest, ... Rewriting one of the older stories seems too big and gives not as much freedom for the characters to develop.

That does not mean it can not affect the setting, though. As all cultures are influenced by their history, so is this RP.

So my suggestion is: choose an interesting time period, choose a situation that brings people together and then let the interaction between those people do the work. Roleplays live through their characters after all, and stories happen through communication.

Bibliophael's picture
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Joined: 01/03/2011

 Even though I seem to have misinterpreted the intent of this thread, I would be honored to participate in a collaborative story led by such worthy Librarians.

 

If I may, I wonder if I might use the opportunity to develop a character I have in mind for a project I am currently working on?

YH
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The more the merrier.

Got some ideas myself, one is pretty much complete but for the art.

YH
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bump-a-bump

 

I kind of get the feeling everyone is just waiting for someone else to take the initiative here, or else this thing really has run out of gas on the runway, so let's try something else.

In discussing things, Laria pitched the idea of a shipwreck somewhere, possibly one of the little unexplored islands between Tamriel and Akavir. The ship would likely be a merchant vessel with a versicolor crew and assortment of passengers (so you can pick who/what ever you want) and an unknown cargo (ooh, mysterious) blown far off course by a squall, and ending up on a strange and alien land (Lost set in Tamriel, maybe) so plenty of space for world-building.

I can't imagine the timeline being extremely relevant given the circumstances, but if you must have one there's several gaps in the second era, one of about 70 years between the alleged formation of the DB and the assassination of Potentate Savirien-Chorak where, apparently, nothing major happens; 70 years is an entire lifetime for most, lots of room for lots of story, and we avoid having it set in the uncertain future or during one of the games and bumping up against any other established lore, for those of us concerned with potential issues.

There's no set plot beyond survival, we'll just let things go from there and see what happens.

Lady N's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2010

Would it work like DnD, then, with a DM dictating the unknown (nature, NPCs, etc.)? 

 

Jeroic's picture
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 Well generally the way we'd do it back before was the person who started the whole thing would be loosely in charge of the main plot, and if someone else had an idea whoever wound up being stuck in charge of that would get a PM asking if such-and-such fit in with the general direction being reached for.

YH
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Lar said she wanted to get back to something akin to Tides, so even looser than that maybe. I dunno, I wasn't around for Tides, is that how you guys did it LN? The way she explained it to me was you guys had a basic premise (colonizing Yokuda) but that was largely a sub-plot and the main fun came from all the random adventures you guys went on (vampires, zombies, assassins, etc.)

I'm not looking to host, but I'll get the ball rolling with first post if it comes to that.

So nope, no DM, no secret plots of betrayal, no grand scheme...unless you want one.

Lady N's picture
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If by LN you mean me, I wasn't around for tides. 

 

By DM I just meant someone to direct the basic plot and make sure that it goes somewhere - starting on an insland is awefully loose, we could spend 20 pages without really getting anywhere if we have no one to suggest where we go next.  

Laria's picture
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He means Jeroic.

 

I guess you could call it a DM then, yes. In Tides LN became the 'leader' somehow, still don't know how. He did not start the RP, we did not choose him as a leader, he just became it. There was still room for others to put in their own sub-plots though. Sometimes those became bigger and turned into a full plot.

It may be a good idea to have someone to keep an eye on things, but I am hoping people will use their common sense and go where people are expected to go. The main idea is to accept all suggestions to go somewhere.

I do not think we really need someone to lead the RP, since that will happen on its own (human nature and all), but I agree that we need to make sure it does not derail too much.

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Hell, I thought Quirk was the leader for most of it. He was surprised when I told him that afterwards.

 

Just chiming in from my break at work to put that out there, sometimes the story just happens because that's how it wants to be told. So no worries.

Laria's picture
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Hell, I thought Quirk was the leader for most of it. He was surprised when I told him that afterwards.

Well, you both had your parts. Just saying that the person who leads the roleplay at the beginning is not always the same as the one at the end.

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Ah, Tides. It ended up very player-driven largely because the creator of the RP vanished while there were still plenty of people more than willing to continue. Interesting how that turned up, since it seems everyone thought someone else was in charge afterwards. : P

Benefit of how it was done is that it essentially allows the plot to progress at the pace the players choose for it, and if a particular player has enough initiative, they can progress the story through a post of their own(provided no one objects to that form of progression). The difficulty is keeping the story cohesive, though the focus of the original Tides made that easily solved, since it was a vague "colonize an island" kinda plot.