(From Highemperor. The joys of e-mail. I'm mostly interested to see what might come out of this. I may post some ideas of my own later.)

Hey everyone, this is Highemperor. I'm interested in trying to start a new interactive story on the ISB. I've attempted to do so before (Mythos Solais, for example), but no one has seemed interested. So after those false starts, here's what I propose:

Any writers interested in writing a serious interactive story should post their ideas on this thread of what kind of story we can write about. We'll gather these ideas, and then decide which ones we can write about best (i.e., be most interested in).

That being said, here's some ideas of mine to throw out.

FANTASY IDEAS
1. Once, the Dark Realm invaded the world, and destroyed it. Powerful sages used magic to construct a new land floating high above the destroyed earth for the people to live in. Now, the Dark Realm is gearing up to attack this floating land, and only a group of heroes can stop it.
2. A solar eclipse is about to happen, but ancient prophecies foretell that it will bring an eternal night of evil and undead.
3. A neverending war between good forces and evil forces in a land far away.

SCI-FI IDEAS
1. An ancient spacecraft is found floating at the edge of known space. It is a mystery to be unlocked.
2. A combination of magic-and-technology world, where "magetech" increases one's ability to cast spells.
3. A mysterious warlord is conquering planet after planet from his gigantic starship.
4. A world where cyborgs are the norm, and normal humans struggle to retain their humanity, but are under siege.

Things like that. Suggest your own ideas, comment on which ideas you like best, and so forth.

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Check out the following stories over at the Interactive Story Board:
The Never-ending Story Thread or visit the new webcomic version!
The Vision Cycle series
Featured Story: The Darkside Chronicles

[This message has been edited by Gebohq (edited March 26, 2004).]

We need a western *points to his empty Cliche western thread*

That being said Trigun rocks.

Seriously though.

Maybe like a Fantasy, but modern day. We always read about Fantasy being played like it was the dark ages but with magic. That seems to be getting old. But what about Fantasy today?



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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!

I perfer Fantasy #1. It seems the most original, and would lead to interesting battles. (Air battles? Bombings? wha?)

Oh, and building off of what SAJN said:
This can take place during the today. I think it would be interesting to see mage-types fighting side by side to a living rambo.


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"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
Make Sorrowind Worthwhile... join it! http://sorrowind.net

[This message has been edited by Cool Matty (edited March 26, 2004).]

(Geb as messenger... OF YOUR DOOM! Or not. For now.)

This is Highemperor again. (Kudos to Geb for putting up with all my mad schemes.) We have two votes for a modern fantasy, and one vote for that modern fantasy to have elements of Fantasy #1.

So would this be like on Earth, or another world, or what? I think it should be on another world, similar to Earth, but not exactly. The Dark Realm can be another country that attacks the central Realm, which people retreat to sky cities as their old country is now a nuclear wasteland covered in soot and magma. There could be good races (elves and dwarves) and evil (drow and demons) races, and neutral races (humans), all of whom have magic and technology, but who might be stronger in some aspects than others. For example, the elves might have perfectly blended magic and tech, whereas the dwarves would be more technological. Things like that.

Whatcha think? And keep posting your thoughts and ideas!

Maybe a different world, similar to earth. Basically a earth, with a slight higher technology knowledge thing. Just enough to still be imagined as today, but not like way futuristic.

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!

So you want basicly a near-future fantasy, SAJN. that would sound good to me. Highemp's sounds good, too, since i like fantasy an magic and such, but i wouldn't mind writing for either.

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade
"I'm a Cannabal-Vegitarian. I will BBQ an employee if there is no veggie option"
-DX:IW

Idea!

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Flibbledy-dibbledy! Nyaaaaaaaahhh!

-The Last True Evil

*cough*


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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!

Perhaps it was recently seeing the new Dawn of the Dead movie, but I like fantasy idea #2 the most.



Fantasy idea #1 ain't bad either though, and it'd be my second choice among the ones brought up in the first post. I like the idea of a western (characterized by frontier/uncharted land, cowboy/trucker types with pistols and shotguns, etc.) which I think could easily work with a near-future alternate earth-type setting (a touch of sci-fi and fantasy).

As for races brought up in the second post from Highemperor, I think, if they really want to be made implimented, should be up to the other writers. That is, perhaps let each writer introduce one original race of their own. I think it'd be cooler if the emphasis was on different cultures or nationality or what-have-you, but physical differences seem easiest to work with. Perhaps in a near-future environment, one "race" could be cyborgs, or genetically enchanced people or clones, though that may or may not be closer to a "class"...

Anywhos, while I can't say whether or not I'd be able to participate in such a thread myself, I think a near-future western battling an increasing population of the undead has the most promise.

While highly unlikely to catch the interests of the average writer, myself included, one might wish to look into starting a more "ordinary" story, perhaps something closer to a standard drama. I'd use "A Few Good Men" as an example, but I doubt any of us have the necessary knowledge in law or the military to pull that one off. I'm sure there are better examples out there. Who knows? It might be the next big ISB thing...

(From Highemperor.)

Everyone, here is my proposal for a new story, based on the ideas proposed in this thread.

Long ago, in an age long past, archmagi reigned over the world. They battled for supremacy, unleashing massive engines of mysticism and destruction over the land. This endless war would have continued, had not a wizard, whose name is long forgotten to history and ground to dust beneath the disgust of ages, in desperate hopes of ending the war, opened a portal to the Dark Realm, a dimension not unlike our own, only saturated with evil power.

Everyone, including the archmagi, were being slaughtered; until a grouip of the greatest heroes and archmagi banded together, forming the legendary Sages, pooling their power together for the good of all. There were over a thousand of these Sages, and together their power was mighty enough to accomplish anything; but treachery and deceit resulted in the deaths of most of these heroic men and women.

The few remaining survivors, today called the Last Sages, dealt the Dark Realm a crushing blow, forcing them to retreat. But the lands were hopelessly ravaged. The Last Sages then used their remaining power to build a hovering multi-tiered city-state high in the sky above the volcanic wasteland of their birth, for the peoples to live, and each Last Sage gave his or her life to complete the task by spawning progeny of a new race to guide this brave new world towards its destiny.

Today, we live in an alternate near-future Earth-type setting. The year is 512 ATW (After The War), or 512 years after the end of the war against the Dark Realm. The races that the Last Sages spawned have multiplied into their descendants. Magic and technology compete side by side for dominance.

Yet some are discontent with their lot. Seeking adventure, they live in the Below Realm - the volcanic wastelands where the world's populace originally lived 500+ years ago. (These are the "westerners" of the story.)

But now, destiny is coming to a head, for the Dark Realm and the world are fated to clash again. Eomas, the mysterious Immortal Prophet, has foreseen that with the coming of the next full solar eclipse, the Gloom - an eternal night populated with undead monsters - will cover the world.

Telling no one what he has foreseen, Eomas sends out an urgent call to the direct descendants of the Last Sages and tells them to gather at his tower/citadel/whatever in the sky-state.

Here's where we the writers come in. We each create a main character, who is a direct descendant of a Last Sage (different for each writer), and the only direct descendant alive of that Last Sage. Each descendant possesses a special LATENT power derived from his ancestry plus whatever skills he's normally acquired. The story begins when Eomas sends out his call...

What do you all think?

[This message has been edited by Gebohq (edited April 04, 2004).]

With the right style applied (something akin to a western perhaps, with elemnts above mentioned), I personally think this has rather good potetial. And I think by "westerners" Highemperor is referring to people wishing to move to new lands for whatever reasons -- "pioneers" is probably a more accurate term. Unless they've already settled in the Dark Realm, which could be interesting.

Let's hope this ideas gets some writers behind it.

------------------
Check out the following stories over at the Interactive Story Board:
The Never-ending Story Thread or visit the new webcomic version!
The Vision Cycle series
Featured Story: The Darkside Chronicles

Copy&Pasted from #nes:

the only problem I have with it is the decendents of the sages gathering at the citadel and some ideas for the realms.
<CoolMatty> This is sort of anti-productive for characters that may join in later in the story
<CoolMatty> I was thinking more along the lines of (and working with the western part) a sort of rivalry between the Below dwellers and the Sky dwellers.
<CoolMatty> Basically, the below realm despises the the sky people, because the sky people are more civilized or have something they dont.
<CoolMatty> Now of course there can be direct decendents in both areas also. But I was thinking more along the lines of the below realm having less magic-based peoples.
<CoolMatty> As in, they haven't really revealed their latent powers
<CoolMatty> while many of the people in the sky cities have.
<CoolMatty> I don't know if you have ever played Chrono Trigger
<CoolMatty> but
<CoolMatty> the class system, with the non magic users being poor, and the magic users living in the beautiful floating city of zeal. and a bitter rivalry between both.
<CoolMatty> But it ends up being that both have to join forces to win the war against the Dark Realm
<CoolMatty> This will allow for magic-based users... western/gun-based users, and even a magic/gun combo user (obviously this character would probably be a mediator between the two realms, maybe a sort of diplomat or something.)

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"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
Make Sorrowind Worthwhile... join it! http://sorrowind.net

After watching Trigun again, playing FFVII again, and seeing Hellboy, bring it on.

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!

Just to ask, when are we actually going to start this story? and by the way, does anyone know what's going on with the recen't influx of nonsensical stories in the ISB?

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade
"I'm a Cannabal-Vegitarian. I will BBQ an employee if there is no veggie option"
-DX:IW

You can always turn nonsensical stories into something good. Try it.

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Snail racing: (500 posts per line)

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Nonsensical stories are easier to write for, and as Echoman said, you can turn a nonsensical story into something good. Just look at "A Knight's Tale" for instance.

As for when this new story gets started, it depends on who wants to start it up. Out of courtesy, we should probably wait to make sure Highemperor doesn't want to start it, but then again, this was an attempt at a democratic method of starting a story up, and there's no reason why more than one can't be started if wanted.

well, until then, everyone should head on over to 'Exile' and write for that, or 'A Knight's Tail'.

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade
"I'm a Cannabal-Vegitarian. I will BBQ an employee if there is no veggie option"
-DX:IW
A Knight's Tail
Exile: A Tale of Light in Dark

or Hospital.

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Snail racing: (500 posts per line)

------@%

(Random quote) gothicX: *sexplodes*

well, ok. for 'Zaniness' go to hospital. for 'Seriousness' go to the other two

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade
"I'm a Cannabal-Vegitarian. I will BBQ an employee if there is no veggie option"
-DX:IW
A Knight's Tail
Exile: A Tale of Light in Dark

"Zany" sure seems to be a catch word around these parts, it seems.

*has thoughts of Dark Tower tie-ins*

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<Dormouse> there are very few things quite as comforting as smelling like a close friend.

We are only human, perfect in our imperfections. - Erin amie du Dor

<Dormouse> it's really cute in the way that a sherman tank with a fuzzy steering wheel is cute