Collaborative Worldbuilding Threads

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well, my main problem is that it's a sentence restriction, not a length restriction.

Actually, it's intended to be the maximum sentence limit, not a required number of sentences, if that's what you mean. So you can answer in just one sentence if you prefer. It's just that everyone's been treating it as the required number of sentences.

I don't mind either way. I find it a nice challenge to meet the limit, but it's not obligatory.

So maybe a character limit is the answer.

I considered a character or word limit, but I figured sentences would feel a bit more natural. We could try one of the other forms next time, or perhaps some other way of regulating answers.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by ericthered

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.

There is a lot more freedom with 4+ sentences, but I they're still shorter than some of the answers we got in the other threads. Have a look at the last page of the cross-dimension thread, and I think the shortest answer was 5 sentences.

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.

I think this might be just a teething problem, and we'll get better at being more on point with a bit more practice. Also, we'll start answer more bite-size questions, rather than asking "Describe the republic's government system and political history. (You have... 2 sentences!)"

If there's a problem with short answers, it's that without the extra detail we're more prone to working on our own unstated assumptions rather than on what was actually said. That might be what was behind a couple of the mix-ups about which races there were. For instance, I'd presumed that a "precursor" race came and went a long time ago, but that's not the only course that history has to take.

So I guess the fix is to just keep that issue and mind, and be ready to negotiate and fix up anything that pops up.

Anyway, I think the d6 rule adds a bit of gamist fun, and, like iambic pentameter, having a writing rule forces you to be creative in certain ways too.

[ericthered]

a length limit does sound stronger than sentences. Characters might be hard to count without certain tools. On the other hand, the editing box for posts is pretty standard, so we could approximate a character count limit by counting in lines.

Huh, just counted the characters in a line, and its 80. Which stands out to me as the "suggested" max number of characters in a line of programming (in some standards).

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The misunderstandings in some ways are interesting, because they've generated more ideas. Its not the setting we're building, but now I want to see a setting where the precursors are still around but had their power utterly broken.

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I think the Polycosm encouraged massive descriptions. That was an enormous project, and it still feels a touch sparse.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Actually, it's intended to be the maximum sentence limit,

Yeah, and that's the problem I have. I like to write short sentences. It helps keep things readable. Give me one sentence and well, you'll see an ugly, hard to parse sentence.

[(E)]

Overall I like the short answer format. Later questions (question 80 + maybe) might merit longer or more in depth answers, possibly at the question writer's behest.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Yeah, and that's the problem I have. I like to write short sentences. It helps keep things readable. Give me one sentence and well, you'll see an ugly, hard to parse sentence.

Ah, I see what you mean now. I'm not too concerned though- the sentence limit, as rubbery as it is, is still keeping answer lengths fairly manageable. I could put a ban on using semi-colons, comma splices and parentheticals to avoid sentence blow-out, but I prefer to just trust that people won't abuse the spirit of the rule while staying within the letter of it.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Also, we'll start answer more bite-size questions, rather than asking "Describe the republic's government system and political history. (You have... 2 sentences!)"

Yeah, that question is a little big compared to the sentence restriction. One way to avoid that issue is to roll the sentence restriction first, and then tailor the scope of the question to that limit.

[(E)]

For future reference I would like to throw out another suggestion for the pile.

A post apocalyptic setting, but with the added limitations of having;
No major powers, just smaller factions. To play up the fist full of dollars type campaign.
Set on earth.
If there was also some higher TL artifacts around there could be some good setting material from which I could spin an agricultural write up or two. Having no major powers would also help with this.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by (E)

For future reference I would like to throw out another suggestion for the pile.

A post apocalyptic setting, but with the added limitations of having;
No major powers, just smaller factions. To play up the fist full of dollars type campaign.
Set on earth.
If there was also some higher TL artifacts around there could be some good setting material from which I could spin an agricultural write up or two. Having no major powers would also help with this.

I'd participate in this, as long as we kept it reined in. For instance, the current space station thread is entirely too baroque and over the top.

(If it houses more than a few thousand people, and specializes in something other than services for spacecraft and crews, it's a habitat and not a station. A station exists to serve transient traffic as part of a transportation infrastructure.)

Keep the tech level at no greater than TL9 at the time of the cataclysm; make the "current time" no more than one generation after the event; and try to get the idea through people's skulls that any society with a sophisticated industrial supply chain is not a valid AtE setting; and we might be able to come up with some gritty goodness.

For my part, I'd go even more hardcore, and pick an alt-history setting in which Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov wasn't on duty during Able Archer 83, and everything that could've gone wrong, did.

That puts the technology at the apocalypse at late TL7/early TL8, in an era with lots of source material to mine for ideas.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

For future reference I would like to throw out another suggestion for the pile.

A post apocalyptic setting, but with the added limitations of having;
No major powers, just smaller factions. To play up the fist full of dollars type campaign.
Set on earth.
If there was also some higher TL artifacts around there could be some good setting material from which I could spin an agricultural write up or two. Having no major powers would also help with this.

Indeed, this could work.

I might invite someone else to kick off the next thread. I regularly have to take a week or so off to meet work commitments, so without someone leading the thread that's often when they stall out. Whoever starts it, feel free to use the boilerplate I've developed for the first post.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I'd participate in this, as long as we kept it reined in. For instance, the current space station thread is entirely too baroque and over the top.

(If it houses more than a few thousand people, and specializes in something other than services for spacecraft and crews, it's a habitat and not a station. A station exists to serve transient traffic as part of a transportation infrastructure.)

I don't know, I thought its main purpose was still to be a port for ships to land at and trade. It had a large population, but that falls out of the Spaceships rules for habitats with something that size.

Keep the tech level at no greater than TL9 at the time of the cataclysm; make the "current time" no more than one generation after the event; and try to get the idea through people's skulls that any society with a sophisticated industrial supply chain is not a valid AtE setting; and we might be able to come up with some gritty goodness.

I have the feeling that putting too many preconditions up front might stymie people a little. I think the most restrictive start we had was the dwarven agriculture thread, and that was fairly open to start with. You could see how it goes though.