A Short Message from the Apolyton Storywriter's Guild

[SKILORD]

About two years ago something new arrived at the Apolyton Civ3 Stories Forum, SKILORD began an NES, SNESA: SKILORD's Neverending Stories Apolyton.

It was at the height of that forum, and the concept quickly gained a small, but devoted, following. NESes at Apolyton never reached the size of those at CFC, there were generally two, sometimes only one. These NESes would be less moderated, less centralized than CFC NESes and also generally more story oriented.

Despite that the people of the Stories forum banished the NESes to the OT Stories and Diplomacy Forum. Undeterred the Apolyton NES community continued in it's own uniqe style from CFC.

Apolyton NESes had a tradition of unique rules, from those that never caught on, such as SNESA: Survival to such trendsetters as SNESA: Absolution which would eventually come to CFC. It is in this tradition of innovation that we are hoping to take a step forward soon, and which we invite you to share with us.

The Civ3 Stories Forum has recently fallen on hard times, members dissapearing and attention basically faltering. Therefore a movement has begun to reunite the Stories forum with the NESes, but that I find unlikely.

What is more likely to work would be something that isn't an NES; for instance a GSA, or Group Story Activity.

The basic idea of the GSA is similar to that of the NES, that several different writers join to tell stories from different viewpoints, the GSA though focuses on individuals and not nations, and is far more of a storytelling activity than NESes generally are.

The First GSA should begin as soon as SKILORD gets settled into college, it presently looks as follows:

Group Story Activity I: For Love of the Queen

In 1785 the Final American Colonial Constitution was chartered, it would become the basis for British-Colonial relations for years to come. There was no American revolution and this would always bother fire-eaters in New England, like Samuel Adams and his Sons of Liberty. India was the next nation to enter into a Constitutional Agreement with Britain, Australia and South Africa Followed. The Ottomans and China applied for protectorates, receiving them and Britain came ever closer to world domination.

Europe still posed problems for her, of course, but there was little to be done about that and she could easily ignore them anyways. Then Germany unified under Prussia and The Three Emperor’s alliance began to try to dictate terms to France, East Europe became suddenly, far more powerful than ever before. Russia, Austria and Germany seemed capable of dictating terms to France, the newly united Italy and Spain.

The Year is 1914, the situation stinks of providence, Prime Minister Theodore Roosevelt of Northern America is beginning to pull his nation to even more autonomy and the Irish are screaming for home rule. Europe seems at the brink of something beyond anyone’s imagination, a war that will slaughter millions. Empires are won and lost in years like this, and the Germans know that as well as the British do.

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The nations are unimportant in this game because you do not play as a nation as you would in a Neverending Story. This is not a Neverending Story; this is a Group Story Activity. The previously described AH is where our story begins. And it is up to you to pick a character to direct in that world. There is absolutely no means of winning; this is not a game, work on having a cohesive plot and on actually writing. There are no Limitations on you, there are no post requirements, if you feel like writing one short bit set in this world, and never coming back, go ahead.

Characters are our top priority, and anyone involved in the story can make his own, or as many of his own as he chooses. They will be labeled as your own and you alone will be able to write about them, unless permission is given to another author. There are also three Open Characters about whom anyone can write without any permission.

Vladmir Lenin: A Russian exile in Zurich.

Minister Theodore Roosevelt: The Minister of America, essentially the President, but accountable to Britain.

Richard Blair: Father to George Orwell, lives in Bengal, India.


Author - Character(s)
SKILORD - James Buchanan (London), Ivan Wilczyen (Novogrod)
AnotherPlayer - Tsar Nicholas (St. Petersburg), Timothy Pierce (New York)

See Thread: Here

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If you have any contributions to make, please make them here, if you have any questions, please ask them here. I'll put up a link here as soon as it gets started, please let me know if you are interested.

 

[das]

So, more or less, this is like what the NES was "supposed" to be in the very beginning?

 

[alex994]

So, more or less, this is like what the NES was "supposed" to be in the very beginning?

if this is true, i'm happy i arrived later....

 

[SKILORD]

I'm not sure, das, perhaps this is what was intended but I'm not one to say for sure what was intended when they were invented, you were more a part of the invention process so maybe you have a right to, but I can't claim that I do.

The NES has become what it's become, I've no problems with that, I'm just tryng to get a gimmick to get attention to the 'poly Storywriter's guild.

And I would also like to know what you, alex, find so inimicable about the concept.

 

[alex994]

simple SKILORD, very little interest in writing stories after finishing a few essays at summer school...

 

[Gelion]

I agree however I like to read the stories. I will write some for my new game, but I'm not terribly good with the country I picked (Portugal).

 

[das]

I mean, in the original, it was supposed to be a lot of people writing one story. Never mind, I think I see the difference now - in the GSA, everybody writes about his character(s) only, right?

 

[SKILORD]

You can write about someone else's character with their permission adn the Open Characters have the potential of carrying a centrality to the story, with any person's character capable of interacting with them, and with anyone able to write about them.

I'm considering some sort of a veto process against the more outlandish ideas.

 

[Jason The King]

sounds interesting. but I hope one will start here, cus I actually used to like just reading poly nes's, lol, and I am afraid introduction of cfc players there could disrupt it, and the way the nes's are played.

 

[SKILORD]

I understand your apprehension, Jason, but, as you can see from Alex's reaction, people who don't like to write aren't going to participate in this and many of the people that we all loved to watch are, sadly, gone.

 

[tossi]

This looks very interesting. Unluckily I´m not such an excellent story writer. Maybe I will try to write something, but for sure I will watch this "GSA"!

 

[North King]

I'm in the same boat as tossi. I might write--but I'm not a very good writer. I will certainly watch!

 

[SKILORD]

Well, you don't have to be especially talented or especially devoted for this, that's the beauty of it. You can write one little bit and then just move on and never try again or look back, also it would be a great place to practice writing and to get good because there isn't any commitment to it.

 

[Norseone]

Looks cool, ill prolly try to participate even though my stories are horrid...

 

[SKILORD]

Glad to hear it.

 

[Metaliturtle]

As a founder of the 'poly storywriters Guild, and thus guy with a self-imposed "rank" I will say that Apolyton has some good critics who will help you improve your story writing skills tremendously. If you go back far enough you can see my evolution, as well as SKILORD's, cbraund's who you guys know as UKNemesis, and many others.

On another note, it's the diplomacy and the National identities that bring people back to reread NESes, and if you read Absolution on 'poly you will be interested even though you didn't play in it.

 

[SKILORD]

Yeah, for those of you who don't think you can write, look at My First Story it wasn't pretty either but I kept chipping away and writing and before forever I'd produced such timeless classics as.... well actually I'm still working on that part of it.

Furthermore as the Self appointed representative of the Guild here (We're all self appointed at Apolyton) I wish to announce that GSA I: For love of country is open.

What I'm thinking we'll get is something like the book Roma Eterna, a series or group of short stories told at different places in the same setting (A world if the Romans survived).

(Don't be worried about the opening storym you can do it the regular way, with a chapter every now and again or just write a quick tidbit like I did.)

 

[amirsan]

It would be great Skilord if you started nes over at SCC... Realy, there are many potential writers there, check out the RPG's stories forum.

 

[Norseone]

No site advertisments Amrisan!

 

[amirsan]

Again I will say... Skilord would make a great reviver. And if you call this advertising,.... Skilord posted a bunch of links to Apolyton... isn';t that advertising?

I realy dont get it... well going back home (SCC).