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x_projectYes, everyone's favorite meme, open to player and audience participation as well! Most of you have played this game (or the home version), but for those newcomers, it's simple: Post a question for any character in the game, and get it answered in and/or out of character!
Anyone's welcome to participate, ask as many questions as you like, as often as you like. Have fun!
Anyone's welcome to participate, ask as many questions as you like, as often as you like. Have fun!
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Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 09:57 pm (UTC)This is more of a big behind the scenes question, but one I've been meaning to ask for a while:
How do you guys usually go about writing your logs? E-mail? Chat? Do you "play" them first on-line, and later rewrite them into story format, or is it more of a direct fiction writing process?
Also, if you feel like divulging tonight, how much joint planning goes into the plotlines, and how much do the mods/GMs not tell you, so that you need to make up stuff on the fly?
That's actually a huge question. Maybe give a recent plotline as example?
Eep.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 10:12 pm (UTC)Logging depnds on the player. They're usually written in tandem over email or in AIM. Some prefer email and some prefer AIM. I like AIM because it's more immediate, but then I have a lot more mistakes that need editing later.
Planning usually takes some advance warning, especially if it's a big one. You have to work this stuff out at least a couple of months in advance if it involves a lot of players. (or a plot that's just starting to happen has actually been in the works for MONTHS) Your plot is your plot, you send it to the mods for approval, and they'll make sure you're not running over someone else's toes and keeping your facts straight, but the details are solely yours and anybody else's you plotted with.
Then it's up to you to write everything that you need. The mods have no set plan for the game, they just try to keep it from going down in flames.
Take Ghost of a Chance. The email went out for that a few months prior to June. The call went up for players who were interested, and we sent our ideas to the plot-holder (who would be Tarot's player, in this case) for her approval. She handled the very plot-specific logs, while the rest of us were able to come up with visions and whatnot and post them.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 10:17 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 10:16 pm (UTC)For me, logs are discussed - I have a hard time with logs that don't have a clear outcome or idea behind them, and then just written, one-shot, with a bit of editing after the fact. (With a few exceptions. The Doug/Marie-Ange breakup was started with a checklist of things for them to fight about, and there's been a few other logs that came out that way) It's definitly a fiction-writing process for me.
Plots are player-driven (sometimes those players happen to be the mods)- we come up with them, submit them to the mods, work out bugs and kinks and then get to gettin'. There haven't been any mod-dictated plots that I know of, with the exception of plots where the players happened to -be- the mods.
So, for example, Ghost of a Chance was brainstormed by me and Doug's player while driving from Toronto to Washington DC. I wrote up a basic outline, threw it at some people for idea generation, wrote out a longer outline with notes and sent it to the mods, who threw me some questions, and then we set a date for the plot around the other things that were going on, and sent the notes to the player list so that I could get an idea of what people would see, and sit on some people for specific things I needed to happen. Most of the 'action' was pretty much plotted out by me and Twiller at plot brainstorming time and included in the plot outline, but aside from some examples that happened to be used, the visions were all off the cuff.
On the other hand, The Perfect Nanny was me with an outline of a plot, but the action parts were jointly discussed and plotted by everyone involved. When I submitted it, I had the villians and what they were doing, and a basic idea of the team response, but all the character stuff was handeled by each individual player during brainstorming and then again during the writing process.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 10:45 pm (UTC)Part of the plot-discussion process is sometimes people will post plot ideas/outlines to either the closed-player comm or to their own personal LJs under a lock. It's a good way to get responses, clarify ideas, get suggestions etc. Once the plot's been hammered down to an outline the person who proposed it first sends it to the mods. It's initially treated as a beta and problems with continuity, scheduling, consequences that were unforeseen but game-shaking, general issues are ironed out and eventually the plot is approved.
I personally prefer to post the final plot summary and a rough timeline for required logs on the player comm once I have approval so that I have a handy reference point to poke people towards. It's pretty much essential for the big plots. Especially timelines - I include due dates for the essential logs and who's doing what, either as a post or an email to the people involved, but then again I'm the scary plot nazi. ;)
Some plots by necessity are kept quiet, like Buy Now: Pay Later (otherwise known as the Charlie plot) since yeah, response would not have been half as effective if people had known the outcome ahead of time. A lot of the smaller personal stuff is also kept to just the players involved, so we're seeing some of this stuff the same time the readers are. :)
The thing that I really like about XP is that there is no overall mod-controlled plotlne. The game is created by the players and much of it is reacting to what others are doing without a lot of pre-discussion. Of course, if you're planning something that will have a major effect on another character that isn't involved it's common courtesy to give them a head's up, but yeah, a lot of the character journal stuff especially is unplanned reaction.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-29 10:49 pm (UTC)As for me, and plots, really depends on the plot. :) When I organize X-Men missions, I generally come up with a skeletal idea, then toss it to people. They flesh it out, put their own spins on it... it usually works extremely well.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:05 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:11 pm (UTC)(I have to admit, I was tempted to respond "The only way to know is to experience it" and link her to the app. :D)
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:15 pm (UTC)I always dropped out because of time issues.
I am still tempted though.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:18 pm (UTC)*crosses fingers*
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:22 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:23 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
From:Re: Oh goody!
From:Re: Oh goody!
From:Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-30 03:46 am (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:16 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:17 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:18 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:28 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:10 pm (UTC)As for logs, I'm just the opposite of Frito. I almost never know where I'm going when I start a log. The girls do sometimes but not me. I'm just along for the ride.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:13 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-29 11:16 pm (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-30 12:57 am (UTC)I'm hungry, can you tell?
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-30 02:09 am (UTC)And I can't answer the plot question because I shy away from big plots unless someone needs me. Which is ironic since I'm trying to write an outline for one to get Alex back in the mansion for good.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-30 02:16 am (UTC)This comment brought to you by AUs R US. Repression, it's what's for dinner.
Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-30 02:19 am (UTC)Re: Oh goody!
Date: 2006-06-30 02:27 am (UTC)