I was driving along today and I had an idea which may be good or bad but I will let you decide.
renegade writers teaming up to write stories/books. Within the Underground if different people write the first Chapter of a short novel and allow others to write the chapters beyond that. A complete book or storyline. I believe that this may be a little slow to get built up a little bit but once there were a few story lines started and everyone that is interested is working on a chapter for one of the stories then everyone could really get a feel of how others are in their writings and can learn to blend their sights together well. This is something like finishing a story already started however if no one person could write more than one consecutive chapter then it could go in many different directions. This would follow something similar to the way the RPGs are written in storyline however it will not require a GM to explain it. It will rather be explained as the current author would see it. We did a project similar to this in my gifted class in high school and we had some very interesting stories that actually made good reading I thought. This allows each person to add a piece of themselves to the story without having to write an entire novel by themselves.
Seeing however that the maturity level would be required to be very high to keep these stories running it may be something that you would have to grant as a privilege to post and open to read kind of thing. Just an idea, come on critics tell me your thoughts.
bwren: That is a very cool idea. I'd be up for doing something like that. I think "alternative" or something edgy when I hear Underground. So, I like that idea about the next author furthering the story, you never really know what's going to happen when you post your chapter.
Good idea, and I also believe someone brought up something similar recently. We do already have something like this set, it has its' own script and everything, I just have not gotten around to publishing it yet, but take a look: The Medieval Times. FarSeer had originally agreed to be its' supervisor as she is our in house grammar specialist. Though it is set in an Medieval world the script allows for it to become as dark and as dastardly as possible depending on the mode of the writer.
Thanks JB for the link. I was reading through this a little earlier and do like the concept of it. I was just not sure of how restrictive it would be as what is possible within the script. I guess I was thinking something simpler, more generic. Have one story about children going to the zoo and another about a man climbing a mountain. I personally like the idea of a medieval scheme for but that just lacks diversity for those who are not into the era.
I understand, the same concept can also be done in the Member Wars Section. This actually is the most misunderstood Board we have in the Community, possibly because there are so many different options within the same Board, but in fact that is what it is for --> Open RPG, where anyone can come and start a story with their own rules, just as you described. See this thread: Start Your Own Story. Also look over the General Rules and other sticky threads of that board and you will see the options are there, but no one has really taken advantage of them.
You see, the reason I am fighting against the idea of The Underground being a writing Board, is because we have so many similar things like this that are not used, and so I do not want to start another one.
Well, it SHOULD be something illegal. That's what the underground is all about. Of course that would violate the rules.
Here are the latest plans... I am going to do away with the chat room, no one uses it really and I do not have time to moderate it. In addition to this I really do not have time for real time chat.
In its place I am creating a new place to post as FREE as you will called, "Chat Boards". These Chat Boards will be similar to regular Boards but have a look like a Chat Room. This will enable you to come in and talk about whatever you want without feeling like you are 'in' the Forum, when in fact you are. Anyone interested in seeing that?
I may makes some fun features for it too like 'buy a drink' or 'decorate' your chat profile and so forth so it truly is FUN!