From talorina@deathstar.org Wed Jun 24 17:16:48 1998 Date: 24 Jun 1998 14:00:36 -0000 From: Becca Ward To: undisclosed-recipients:;;;@hammurabi.nh.ultra.net; Newsgroups: alt.dragons-inn Subject: Quasi-FAQ: Excerpts [This message excerpts certaiin portions of the [completely unofficial, nothing more than my opinion, I refer you to the official FAQs on the Web page] Quasi-FAQ.] 3. BUT I REALLY WANT TO WRITE SOMEONE ELSE'S DIALOGUE/ACTIONS/THOUGHTS ... THAT'S HOW WE DO IT AT ALT.ROLEPLAYSTUFF, AND IF IT'S ALLOWED THERE, THEN, BY GAWD, IT SHOULD BE ALLOWED IN AD-I. Other roleplaying venues have different rules. Here, the default rule is that each individual player decides what his/her character says, thinks, feels, does. Note I said default -- you can interference if the other player gives his/her consent. Now, *if* you want to admin a thread where you as admin -- or even the other players -- have the leeway to write things for other people's characters, AND EVERYONE AGREES TO THAT APPROACH, then you are perfectly free to run a thread that way. But please realize that this method is *not* the norm in ad-i and you should *not* assume that it is acceptable. As always -- *ask* the other players. And please be gracious enough to respect their decision *not* to adopt that method. For greater elaboration, see the Beginner's FAQ, which can be found (along with many other FAQs) on the Web page at http://www.dragons-inn.org/ 8. I REALLY WANT MY CHARACTER TO BE AN INCARNATION OF RAISTLIN/VANYEL/RAND AL'THOR. Um, well ... You should realize that the characters and worlds created by Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman, Mercedes Lackey, Robert Jordan, and many other popular fantasy writers are copyrighted. And such writers are -- and must be -- vigilant about protecting their material from unauthorized use by others. And, in fact, we have occasionally received posts to the newsgroup from published authors requesting that their copyright be respected. So, what does this mean? Think of Weis/Hickman, Lackey and Jordan as fellow players in ad-i, and apply the same rules that must be observed regarding other ad-i writers' characters -- DON'T DO ANYTHING TO ANYONE'S ELSE'S CHARACTERS, STORYLINES, OR CREATIONS. It is simply a matter of respecting the integrity of a character or concept created by someone else. Besides, it's much more creative for the writer, and much more interesting for the reader, to come up with an original character. 10. IF I WANT TO SET A STORYLINE IN MONTFORT, DO I HAVE TO GET ANYONE'S PERMISSION TO DO THAT? WHAT ABOUT THIS [COUNCIL] THREAD? Montfort is a "public" role-play area, as is the Dragon's Inn. There are a number of long-standing storylines set in Montfort, most of which developed directly from [Church] (a long story, but if you're not familiar with it, I would be glad to fill you in on the general outline -- okay, maybe not "glad," but at least "willing"). If you want to set your thread in Montfort, you are free to do so without asking anyone's permission -- as long as you follow the basic rules, set out above, about not trying to affect or change another person's storyline without clearing it with them first. For example, you can set up a Mage's Guild without having to acknowledge the existence of any other such organization in Montfort. But you can't say that your mages blow up the Grey Mansion (another set of mages) without clearing that with the creator of the Grey Mansion, Chet Hamel. Likewise, if you want to run a criminal character -- a thieves' guild or a serial killer -- you can ... but don't say that your criminal was such a genius that he managed to elude the "Tower Guard," because then you would be using someone else's characters/storyline without prior clearance (and Boyd Boedeker would be the person you need to talk about for that one). So what is the [Council] thread? [Council] is one of the storylines that grew out of [Church]; after Montfort had been levelled for what seemed like the 15th time in a six week span, Grand Inquisitor Blayne set up a tent city to provide shelter to those who had been left homeless. A group of civic-minded characters came together to attempt to coordinate self-governance in the tent city. After [Church] ended, the Council continued to try to put together a civilian government for Montfort. A number of players who run storylines in and around Montfort are involved -- myself, Cathy Mosley, Joao Marum, Patrick Ocampo, Boyd Boedeker, Blake Sinclair. The Council is a mechanism by which we can try to coordinate our particular threads. Those threads include, but are not limited to, [Grey Mansion], [Bards], [Sh'aljien], [Tower Guard], and [Coliseum]. There is one important thing to keep in mind, though: The players in [Council] DO NOT CONTROL MONTFORT. Though we welcome input from, and interaction with, the characters of other players who aren't already involved in Montfort, we do not have (and frankly, don't want to have) any power to veto what you want to do in your storylines, except to the extent that you can't do something to interfere with *our* storylines. (Likewise, [Council] can't do anything to impose on *your* storyline.) If you want to set your thread in a Montfort where the Council does not exist, that's perfectly fine. If you want to set a thread in Montfort where the Council *does* exist, that's fine, too. You can recognize or ignore the actions of the Council as you wish within the constraints of the general rules of ad-i. In fact, there may very well be times where the players in [Council] will have to ignore events in one another's threads -- in the end, [Council] doesn't even have veto power over the members' other storylines. So if anyone tells you, "You can't do that!", make sure you have them explain why. The answer can't be "because the Council said you can't." The only valid reason is because it violates one of the basic rules of the newsgroup -- don't interfere with someone else's characters or plot development (and don't fight in the Dragon's Inn). 11. I WANT TO BLOW UP MONTFORT... Okay. Be forewarned, though, that Montfort has been levelled at least three times since *I* joined ad-i (and probably several times before I joined ad-i). Montfort is a public roleplay area, so you can blow it up if you want. (You cannot, however, blow up other players' places, such as Jord or Havenwood.) Another thing to keep in mind -- in blowing up Montfort, you *cannot* say that you blew up the Dragon's Inn. Furthermore, you cannot touch (or even refer to, without permission) other player's Montfort-area establishments -- such as, the Coliseum, the Bard's Hall, the Healers' Hall, the Paevels' Ranch, the Grey Mansion, the Inebridee Brewery, the Montfort Mime, etc. Nor can you insist that any other player writing in Montfort take even the slightest notice of your explosive plot twist. For you, Montfort -- or even all of Ifreann -- might now be nothing but a pile of dust. For the rest of us, in an alternate reality, it's business as usual. 12. I HEAR THERE'S A VIRUS ON IFREANN . . . Only in those storylines that want to acknowledge it. This again arises from the end of the [Church] storyline, and has led to a spin-off thread called [Selkies], in which the characters look for a way to cure/eradicate the virus. Other storylines that are at least tangentially involved are [Politi], [Company], and [Bounty] (simply because the writers/characters overlap with [Selkies]). Strangely enough, however (okay, it's not "strange," since it is simply a function of ad-i's basic rules), the virus has no effect on other threads -- it simply doesn't exist.