Ambrosia Software Web Board: Cythera Team Stories (TSs) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Well, I mentioned the possibility of starting the TS tomorrow, but I don't seem to have gotten any feedback on that. If I don't start it tomorrow, I might push it back to October. However, I am wary of doing this because I fear that everyone currently interested might lose interest. On checking, I found that most of the interested members have been on recently, and this gives me some hope of starting it tomorrow. (I hope that they all looked at this topic when they were on.) Then again, next week is going to be a busy week for me, and I might not get to post again until Friday.

Therefore:

I think that I will go ahead and start the TS tomorrow, and if the first two weeks until October are somewhat slow, so be it.

THE TS WILL PROBABLY START TOMORROW!

Remember that this is supposed to be a comparatively short TS (although quite a few of the old ones only lasted 2 to 4 months) to jump start the new TS run.

I probably wont be able to do an overly detailed or long posts for the next 3 months or so, got final exams coming up soon, lots of revision to get done. I am certain that dusk will also be in the same position shortly as well.

As I said, I am leery of starting this (mainly because I'm still not sure how many people will participate), but I don't know if the situation is likely to improve if I wait. In that last TS in particular, most of the people vanished around the holidays. Thus, I think now is probably as good a time as any.

Quote

I won't really be able to do many detailed posts until the weekends, but I hope to get at least one a week up and one or two shorter ones. (However, this all might fit in better with the TS being short and quick, not that all posts have to be short—it just might be actually be helpful for this particular TS.)

Actually,
I'm counting on the new participants to move the TS along.


Here again is the basic idea of the TS:

Quote

(This is a reminder that in this particular TS we must not take forever just to reach the Encampment.)


The TS is now up. Please feel free to join and start posting.

This post has been edited by Selax: 15 September 2006 - 12:58 PM

Half Truth, on Sep 5 2006, 02:15 AM, said:

I'd argue finding a name is the toughest part. You can always tone down your character over time (I have been working on that myself, it always seems like an unending process - how can your character progress in knowledge and experience, but have a more challenging time taking on opponents?), but its really difficult to go back and change your name. Unless you get to be a moderator and rewrite history. Nine times.

BreadWorldMercy453, on Sep 6 2006, 03:17 PM, said:

You can have as many characters as you'd like. A word of warning, it is a lot harder to run two characters than just one, because you have to make sure you put enough depth into both of them to make them interesting. (another thing I fail at) cache ran sixteen at one point, and I remember he had trouble keeping all of them going at once.

Selax, on Sep 14 2006, 05:02 PM, said:

Personally, I hate setting time limits on stories: it seems like if you force a constraint, the story feels rushed. Sometimes its nice to let the story write itself, which may take a long time, or it might be shorter than expected. Of course, in the former case, you usually lose all but a couple of dedicated posters from the sheer time commitment and running length of the story - but in the end it kind of works out. (like with Tale of the Treasure; I'm sure if Witch Hunt was still running, you'd see some posting going on there too - even from the most unlikely candidates, like people that dropped out long ago) That's just my take on it though.

Normally, I wouldn't and for TSs after this one I won't, but this TS is something of a special case. If it is still going well when we hit two months and enough people want to keep it going, it will last longer.

Avatara, on Sep 19 2006, 04:37 AM, said:

The easiest solution to this is very simple: just don't name your characters
Something like my situation, only Wizard DOES have a name, I -uh- just haven't thought of one yet...

Yeah, I tried that...for about six years. It doesn't work.

You did? When? Where? How come I haven't heard anything about this?

Or are you just pulling my leg? I can never tell anymore; you have such a serious non-serious way of saying things.

He tends to do that...

You honestly don't think someone would name their child "Avatara", do you?

the thought did kind of cross my mind..

Selax, on Sep 9 2006, 06:31 AM, said:

Eight, once, when Sideline unexpectedly developed into far more than the temporary character I'd intended him to be. Later I tried to stick with at most three or four per TS, since it got rather overpowering when around half the characters in a story were mine.

Well, I am going to give this a little bump to discuss how The Ruffian Encampment TS went and what to do about the next TS.

What did first-time TSers and returning TSers think about this TS? What would you like to see in future TSs?

I'd say that now would not be the best time to start the next TS because of the proximity of the holidays. If the TS is started now or December, most of its participants will probably disappear around Thanksgiving and mainly around Christmas. Starting a TS immediately after Christmas might not work well because everyone would be going back to school, so it might have to wait until mid-January. The problem with that is that most people interested in TSs might lose interest over that time. (Another reason that I think it'd be best if everyone participated in the Tavern to keep interest in up TSs and the like.) Opinions or suggestions on this?

I jumped into that TS without preconceptions and with no forward plans, using whatever aspects that I could of everyone else's posts in whatever ways I could dream up. I found that doing things that way recaptured a little of the fun I had with it back when I first started here. I still need to improve my skills in setting situations up for others to solve. I also need to pay more attention to whether it's day or night.

Limiting myself to one character, and my weakest one at that, was a good move. It left more scope for the imagination, and didn't weight the story too much in my direction.

It seems to me that people are still too afraid of stepping on other people's toes, a side effect of too much planning. Future TSs need to be more spontaneous. A designated 'villain' poster might also be helpful in some cases (see Magpie's posts in the sections of Tavern we've called 'The Undead War' - Tavern III & IV, I think), but I can see it could also become too restrictive in others.

I also concur that people need to get involved in the Tavern between TSs. It was quite good there for a while, but seems to have died down again. Silverfish, where've you gone?

The Ruffian Encampment - I loved. I dont knwo how to describe it but its been one of my funnest TSes yet. As far as starting a new TS, it may be worth the wait unless over a period of two to three months you just have a couple people posting and set up the situation and such.

-Dark

I think that it would be a good idea if more people start setting up these situations keeping in mind that others will modify them and often intending that they do so; pre-conceived ideas about how situation may be resolved are okay but one must remember that these ideas are not necessarily how a situation must be resolved and that the creativity of others must be allowed for.

cache22, on Nov 22 2006, 06:18 PM, said:

Indeed, where did everyone in the Tavern go?

cache22, on Nov 22 2006, 05:18 PM, said:

I agree. Some small outlining is a good idea, but too much planning is far too restrictive on everyone else. I have a particular problem with this as I have an insatiate desire to be organized.
The Ruffian Encampment was supposed to be less-well planned, and I'd say it almost succeeded, but we have a long ways to go.

Dark Jet, on Nov 22 2006, 10:26 PM, said:

I found it to be a really fun TS, as well. I think I enjoy them more when they are simple and short.

Selax, on Nov 24 2006, 05:49 PM, said:

Once again, I'm going to say it. I'm back! Hi, everyone!

cache22, on Nov 22 2006, 06:18 PM, said:

This is an invitation for people to step on my toes.

cache22, on Nov 22 2006, 06:18 PM, said:

Sorry, I was at my grandparents house for Thanksgiving, and was busy climbing their maple trees barefoot, cutting off unwanted branches, with a chainsaw.

EDIT: fixed quote

This post has been edited by Jehezekel: 30 November 2006 - 08:17 AM

Jehezekel, on Nov 30 2006, 07:15 AM, said:

This reminds me: I probably won't be able to post again until about two weeks from now because I have finals coming up. I might be wrong, but I wouldn't count on it.

Well, my exam schedule is a bit different than I had thought, so I have a brief window today that will allow me to post. However, since I have four or so tests next week, I doubt that I will be able to post again until next Tuesday.

I'd love to join in a TS, can we do one soon? I have a character posted in the Tavern, and she has some pretty serious weaknesses (i.e. she'd rather die than swim, she can't do any sort of magic, she isn't from Cythera so she doesn't understand it properly, on a TS she could get into all sorts of marvelous trouble, hint hint.), but she's no weakling either, for all that she fights weaponless. (I'm feeling poetic today, so excuse the weird post.)

Actually, she seems to pretty much have the right idea about the important elementals, Earth is good, Water is bad. You'll be pretty safe from scylla!

She'd ferociously attack Scylla, so long as she didn't get wet.

wow, you've racked up posts fairly quick for being around only two months, congrats on almost 100


Edit: woot, broke 350

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 December 2006 - 01:27 AM

CrazyChick, on Dec 9 2006, 04:48 AM, said:

I'll probably post something concerning TS starting dates and ideas in the Welcome to Land of Cythera topic. (However, I will likely copy-and-paste that post to this thread, considering that this thread is one that focused on TSs and is probably thus a more fit place to discuss them.)

EDIT: Here it is. I have added a bit to it, so it is not quite the same as that found in the other topic.

After the last TS (Ruffian Encampment), I had thought that we might have to wait until sometime in mid-January because of the risks of losing people around the holidays or when school starts back; I have since found that some people (at least myself, I'm not sure about others) have school resuming in mid-January (although I'd be fine with starting then anyway). It also seems that there are now a lot more members around then there had been at the time I thought this, so starting a TS over Christmas Break is possible. However, we still need to settle on a basic plot.

Ruffian Encampment was intended to have a short simple plot to introduce new members to TSs, jumpstart the TSs, and start a new run of more Cythera-related TSs (something which several members had expressed a wish for). I had proposed that after two or three more TSs this run would integrate back in with the plots and subplots from the previous run (hopefully in a way satisfactory to all). I'm curious: do a lot of members still want more Cythera-related TSs?

This post has been edited by Selax: 14 December 2006 - 05:03 PM