A little collaborative AoS writing project...

[JPjr]

hey people...

so for those unaware Black Library author Thomas Parrott started a fun little thing over on Twitter, he created a 40K Imperial Sector (the Nemeyan Sector) and then via a series of polls (he loves his polls) the community worked out what was in it, from Xenos threats to Forge Worlds and the like.

He then opened it up to people to send in pitches for short stories based on the info available, and with a few other writers they've been going through those pitches and treating it like it's a proper anthology, providing feedback to people whose pitches have been accepted, getting them to write proper treatments etc etc (which is the point we're at now).

Anyway it's been an interesting process and also much like Ben's painting challenge here, really helped get me out of a bit of a fug and get creative again during lockdown. Having struggled to write anything for ages I breezed through over 2000 words this morning (I mean I'm not saying they're good words but still...) so basically being selfish I'd quite like to try and keep that momentum going. So who fancies doing something similar'sih but AoS related?

Now obviously we don't (right now) have any BL authors to steer this (though if you're lurking and fancy lending a hand say hi!) and keep it more professional but even if it was just a bit (well, a lot) looser, it could still be fun.  Base it in/around a city of our own creation in one of the realms, choose who the main factions in the city are, who the main threats are etc etc and then get writing.

So anyone fancy it? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[flamingwalnut]

As a burgeoning writer trying to spark a fire that last a good deal longer than a few days, I would love to try my hand at something like this. I love cooperative projects, especially when it comes to lore and such around my favorite past time. I can lend my eyes to edits and give some solid feedback as well, as needed. 

The whole project sounds really promising. Eager to hear more!

[Sttufe]

I would love to try this, I often write short stories for friends and I think it would be great to try getting into writing stories again. I am not good at it but hey, they say mistakes make you learn more than doing it perfectly. In fact if we get our holy overlord Ben or one of the mods on here we can probably get a subforum in TGAC to host the polls and story submissions.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Sttufe

[JustAsPlanned]

Something like this could be pretty cool! What Realm would it be in though?

[Sttufe]

50 minutes ago, JustAsPlanned said:

Something like this could be pretty cool! What Realm would it be in though?

That's a poll!

[Kalebkhaine]

Count me in! 

I'm all about it

We should make a facebook page or discord or something to get polls and lay everything out easily accessible. 

[Nacnudllah]

This could work well in tandem with a community "challenge" NEON (Narrative Event Organizers Network) is currently running.  We're challenging players to run events in a shared setting, "The Neon Archipelago", which is a collection of ever-shifting islands in Ghur.  It would be super cool to have fiction set there as well which could in turn inspire events based on the stories! (for once the world opens up again)

“The Neon Archipelago is a mysterious, ever-shifting archipelago shrouded in a glowing arcane mist from whence it gets its name.  The primary feature of the Archipelago is the Neon Isles, hundreds of scattered islands ranging from just barely large enough to build a dock and warehouse, to large enough to sustain an empire of millions.  Because the isles are so numerous and ever-shifting, they remain mostly uncharted. There are specific “safe” channels that sailors use to travel between islands where the only thing you need to worry about are pirates. Thankfully the Coastal Patrol keeps the pirates in check, but outside of safe channels you’re on your own because this is Ghur and “There be monsters here”.  On the islands in the waters and in the skies, nothing stays in this area for long without going feral. Many of the islands are home to cannibals or worse.”

https://wearetheneon.com/2020/04/12/neon-invitational-2020/

[Sttufe]

3 hours ago, Nacnudllah said:

This could work well in tandem with a community "challenge" NEON (Narrative Event Organizers Network) is currently running.  We're challenging players to run events in a shared setting, "The Neon Archipelago", which is a collection of ever-shifting islands in Ghur.  It would be super cool to have fiction set there as well which could in turn inspire events based on the stories! (for once the world opens up again)

“The Neon Archipelago is a mysterious, ever-shifting archipelago shrouded in a glowing arcane mist from whence it gets its name.  The primary feature of the Archipelago is the Neon Isles, hundreds of scattered islands ranging from just barely large enough to build a dock and warehouse, to large enough to sustain an empire of millions.  Because the isles are so numerous and ever-shifting, they remain mostly uncharted. There are specific “safe” channels that sailors use to travel between islands where the only thing you need to worry about are pirates. Thankfully the Coastal Patrol keeps the pirates in check, but outside of safe channels you’re on your own because this is Ghur and “There be monsters here”.  On the islands in the waters and in the skies, nothing stays in this area for long without going feral. Many of the islands are home to cannibals or worse.”

https://wearetheneon.com/2020/04/12/neon-invitational-2020/

I think this would be cool, however i also think that one of the main attractions of the original was that the whole thing was set up with polls, allowing writers to vote for their own setting, which would allow every writer to have at least one thing that they had pushed into the setting for a story they made for themselves.

[JPjr]

hey...

ok well I thought this thread would sink like a stone but it's just about bumbling along like an Ironclad reduced to 1W.

Personally I can see the value in both situations, going the NEON route (assuming those involved would actually want us to do this, @Nacnudllah you're actually part of it right?) would mean we potentially have a ready made environment to start playing with, can get going quicker and maybe get people interested who are clearly into modelling, narrative games etc which could lead to some fun stuff, then again doing it via polls here does mean we have our own sandpit to play in and potential buy-in from our otherwise seemingly uninterested community here, which would be nice.

So, why don't we open it up and see what people here think. Unless I'm really mistaken it doesn't look like you can add a poll into a post after it's been created (which would also make this a bit difficult), so let's just say people reading this reply NEON if we should see if they fancy having us do something with them and, hmmmm, HOMEBREW if we try and create a city and it's surrounding lands on here from scratch.

We'll tally up the votes on Sunday night and then can make a start next week.

One point of order it doesn't matter if you don't want to write something yourself, I'd still like everyone (who wants, of course) to be involved either making this decision or helping create the setting, as hopefully you'll be the ones reading and, even more hopefully, being entertained by the stories that might come out of this...

That make sense?

NEON

or 

HOMEBREW

the choice... is yours! or not, of course, totally apathy and disinterest in this is also a fairly probable reaction.

Edited April 23, 2020 by JPjr

[JustAsPlanned]

Homebrew generally seems like a better idea imo, but I’m happy either way!

[Kalebkhaine]

I would be happy with either, personally.

Why not a little of both?

Do a Neon island of our own within the archipelago.  We still get to use polls to make it up, but we also get to help support the wonderful neon.

[Sttufe]

3 hours ago, Kalebkhaine said:

I would be happy with either, personally.

Why not a little of both?

Do a Neon island of our own within the archipelago.  We still get to use polls to make it up, but we also get to help support the wonderful neon.

I support this. Have polls to decide our island within the archipelago, as Ghur is a rough middle ground, where you can put in things which would normally infringe on other realms would not be too out of place in this realm. Especially if we could get @Nacnudllahto help us get the whole thing going and at least in some way semi-related to NEON and less of just a collection of stories present only here on TGA. HOMEBREWNEON

Edited April 23, 2020 by Sttufe
Elaboration

[Sttufe]

Also going through and counting comments as who would be interested in writing/reading:
@JPjr (of course) - 1 - Apathy er, Neutral

@flamingwalnut - 2 - HOMEBREW

@Sttufe - 3 - HOMEBREW NEON

@JustAsPlanned - 4 - HOMEBREW

@Kalebkhaine - 5 - HOMEBREW NEON

@Nacnudllah (and NEON something?) - 6 - HOMEBREW NEON

@Kirjava13 - 6 - HOMEBREW

@Clan's Cynic - 7 - HOMEBREW

@MarkK - 8 - Neutral

And if we take likes as those who would come:

@Moldek - 9 - Neutral

@Velys - 10 - Neutral

So a decent starting point in terms of people. Hopefully as this thread picks up steam we can get more people participating.

Total so Far:

NEON: 0

HOMEBREWNEON: 3

HOMEBREW: 4

Decided in favor of HOMEBREW: Votes to follow in something.

Edited April 29, 2020 by Sttufe
Vote Change

[flamingwalnut]

My personal vote is HOMEBREW, just to not step on any potential toes. I do get the appeal of bonding projects, but I rather like making this special and marking TGA's importance in the AoS community with their own spin....assuming we can keep the momentum going and get the community involved! 

If it does start to slow because of momentum and stuff, then hopping in and working more with Neon for a boost could do great. I'm happy to work with either.

[Moldek]

Personnally I’d love to be involved in a small capacity.

I’m talking something like the malign portent stories, very short-form stuff. I know some of the writers here like to build very large settings and complex relationships though, so to each his own. I’d be happy to write something based on a setting that’s created by the community, or based on the neon project. Creative constraints are a good thing. I think setting a realistic scope in terms of the kind of pieces we’d write could be a good way to keep this project going. If I’m honest I rarely read homebrewed stories that are longer than 2-3 pages, so I may be biased here hehe.

But count me in

[Sttufe]

Yeah I think we should try to aim our stories at around 1-3 pages, giving longer stories and shorter stories some leeway.

[Nacnudllah]

I’d mostly be interested in contributing flash fiction type stuff.  I think it would be really cool to see an island (or islands) in the Neon Archipelago created by writers.  So, HOMEBREWNEON is my vote.

Also, I’m not really a proper representative of NEON, but I did facilitate the creation of the setting, which we did with (of course) a series of discussions and polls of narrative event organizers.  Anyhow, it certainly won’t hurt my feelings if people want to do something different, it just seemed like a cool opportunity to join forces  

Edited April 24, 2020 by Nacnudllah

[Kirjava13]

I am curiously interested, in a "maybe this will help with the burnout" sort of way. I will say HOMEBREW on the grounds that I don't know anything about the Neon thing but I'm easy like Sunday morning.

[Clan's Cynic]

As somebody who does a fair bit of writing for kicks, I'd be down. 

[MarkK]

Sounds good, I've being writing small pieces of background for my Nurgle army lately, would be good to try something new, you can put my name down

[Sttufe]

We are currently tied in votes, let's get one more person in here to settle this!

[Clan's Cynic]

I suppose I'll cast my vote for Homebrew then. 

[JPjr]

Ok let’s do this! 

Would it be worth taking this to email or whatsapp or something so we can hash it out without endless back and forth here?

Might be quicker too

if people want to message me their preference I can set up a group chat or email and we can nail down the parameters 

[Clan's Cynic]

1 hour ago, JPjr said:

Ok let’s do this! 

Would it be worth taking this to email or whatsapp or something so we can hash it out without endless back and forth here?

Might be quicker too

if people want to message me their preference I can set up a group chat or email and we can nail down the parameters 

Discord maybe? 

[Sttufe]

29 minutes ago, Clan's Cynic said:

Discord maybe? 

Discord will work. I do think that posting the stories on here would be good, however for communication and casting votes it would be good to be done there. Maybe posting stories and feedback is also done on here as you can realistically put a large majority of the story in a post without it being too bad. Discord for internal communication, and the thread for story feedback review/ reading.