Collaborative Worldbuilding Threads

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Yeah, that kind of thing. The 60's & 70's had a slew of TV shows about non-governmental spy agencies and their sworn enemies- CONTROL and KAOS, UNCLE and THRUSH, the Avengers- that would make good models for a campaign, whether serious or more tongue-in-cheek. We'd be making up agencies, locations, spy gadgets, villains, agents and their bosses, with short adventure hooks and maybe an overarching plot.

I think this would work well for a short answer game.

Which begs the question- what theme would work well with a short answer approach?

Some ideas:

1) Horror - A paranormal research university and its background setting (such as Arkham University and the Chthulhu Mythos).

2) Sci-fi - A space station, and its setting.

3) Gang Town - Street gangs and crime organisations in some chosen genre- fantasy, cyberpunk, Grand Theft Auto, urban fantasy, etc.

The space station is most interesting to me, followed by a paranormal university and with gang town as a distant third. An action setting, focusing on conspiracies, gadgets, organizations, and so forth is probably just below space station in terms of interest for me.

[tshiggins]

If the space station skewed heavily toward the hard science end of things, I'd participate.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

If the space station skewed heavily toward the hard science end of things, I'd participate.

If you don't mind, what would you see as an example of a hard science space station? Or, without meaning to be too pedantic, how would you define hard science?

For me, a space station seems to be an extremely space operatic kind of trope. It presumes that there's enough FTL travel between disparate star systems for a waystation to become viable, and then to be interesting, for there to be enough mixing of different cultures, species, and/or vocations.

As for "hard science", I lean towards "hard superscience". That is, the actual physics might be superscience, but the technobabble is consistently worked out and applied. Ericthered's recent question about artificial gravity plates would fit this mould - we don't know how it's generated, but given it works like *this*, how would it be used.

So that's how I'd interpret a request for a "hard science space station", but I don't know if that's what you had in mind.

[(E)]

What about a hard science fiction space station based setting where deviations from conventional science are handled by vote?
So probably multiple question streams or several questions going at once.

Question 1
How big is the space station?

Question 2, Vote
Do the ships in the setting use looped geography wormholes to produce antimatter on demand for propulsion?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

What about a hard science fiction space station based setting where deviations from conventional science are handled by vote?
So probably multiple question streams or several questions going at once.

Roll d6 for scientific hardness?

I'm a bit iffy about the voting mechanic in these threads. We generally don't have enough voters for much of quorum, and they bog down the thread a bit.

I am looking for other ideas on how we could handle some of this, but there doesn't seem to be much out there.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Roll d6 for scientific hardness?

I'd say just handle it in question answer format.

I'm a bit iffy about the voting mechanic in these threads. We generally don't have enough voters for much of quorum, and they bog down the thread a bit.

I think its workable with the right rules. In this case the voting is only for letting in elements we want to be careful with (superscience). From experience we know that three people is a lot in these threads. I propose that if you want to stick in super-science, it has to acquire three more votes for than votes against, and if it gets three votes against it is rejected. Votes may only be made in posts that answer or propose questions (and possibly both).
Votes may only be on for or against questions.

On the other hand, the short question trial may not be the game to play around with voting on.

[Daigoro]

Alright, enough talk, time for some action!

It looks like the space station has some interest, so we'll run with that.

I'll only put in the Rapid Fire- 1d6 Sentences rule, and let the to-and-fro of the Q&A sort out tech and other details. I can't guarantee how hard the science will be, Mr Higgins, but I predict, from recent form, it'll lean more towards Traveller or The Expanse than toward Star Wars, so I hope that interests you nonetheless.

And thanks heaps for everyone's input! You put the collaboration in the word collaborative!

[Daigoro]

So after a week on the space station thread, what do peeps think of the d6 sentence rule?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

So after a week on the space station thread, what do peeps think of the d6 sentence rule?

I like the effect of smaller answers. It spreads out decision making over more people and focuses questions. I think the setting is more diverse and more people are participating because of it.

Having played with it for a while, I think 1 sentence is a stronger limitation and will amplify the effects of the d6 sentences rules. 5 sentence answers often don't feel limited at all.

The short sentences have made it much more obvious when people try to go off on tangents and insert stuff that wasn't asked about. That isn't a problem the short answers causes. Short answers just makes it more obvious when its done, and it probably prevents it. Having highlighted that facet of the game, it makes me want to find a stronger fix for that sort of thing than we currently have. Without driving people away, of course.

I'm not sure if the policy has made the setting any easier to follow. We're trying to stick as much into our sentences as we can, and we've had a few misunderstandings.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

So after a week on the space station thread, what do peeps think of the d6 sentence rule?

Well, my main problem is that it's a sentence restriction, not a length restriction. For example, take my last answer:

Originally Posted by TGLS

A33
Don't be silly; nobody bypasses New Hong Kong; great places to eat, drink, have a good time, meet interesting people, oh right, most importantly weak, weak customs. If you want entry to the 44th Republic, you'll need an entry transponder, which means dealing with Quarantine Enforcement. Those guys are scary, I've heard stories about how they just shoot people who try to bribe them, and if you try to dock with a station without a transponder KA-BLAM! Of course, people are always trying to get around them, with Rube Goldberg-like contraptions to get contraband on board after receiving the transponder, but it doesn't work, leave system, transponder void, dock with a transponder-free ship, transponder void. I've heard rumors of a smuggling ring that has some way of fooling Quarantine's system, but I'm not sure how.

If I had one sentence, I could have written:

Nobody bypasses New Hong Kong, people try to bypass Quarantine's inspection, so they can import contraband, though only one group is successful.

And that would be about the same answer. If I had a hypothetical length restriction, I'd end up writing;

Nobody bypasses New Hong Kong, it has weak customs. People try to subvert Quarantine's inspection process, so they can import Contraband into the 44th Republic. Only one group has much success.

So maybe a character limit is the answer.