Wraith Worshippers Anonymous - Introduction, Joining And Inactivity, Rules, OOC Chat

[Draco-Stellaris]

I know this suggestion will sound wrong on many levels but please just think it over for a little while before bashing me:

The way it seems, we will never achieve a set of rules that can be applied for both the CO hive and the main game threads because the clientele is different. Of course we want to the rules to be as loose as possible in BOTH games but maybe it is time to separate them. This would not be as big a step as you might think.

All we'd have to do is ask a mod to remove the CO hive from the WWA folder. (This being because the main game world has multiple threads and would make more sense to stay in the folder while the CO hive is only one thread, i.e. one game world.

The CO hive will stand alone and have its own business, the very same way it has always done with the only exception that it will not be bound to any of the old or possible new rules we're setting up for the main game threads. Some people play exclusively on the CO hive so won't notice a difference in game play. And those who play in both games can still do so.

The CO hive can even keep the WWA-addition in its name if this is wished for but will be independent of whatever happens to the rest.

If possible, no bashing please. Just a simple 'yes' or 'no'.

[ciannwn]

The idea of the versions could work out. We'd still need to find a way to avoid consufion. Up till now we've solved this by having the owner of the new version pick a different name for his/her Wraith. Like Shawn and Shaun, Steve and Tony. But maybe not everyone would like to create a new version by a different name. What do people think about this?

There needn't be any problems over names if things are looked at from the perspective of the game world characters. "We've got a Todd on the Chill Out Hive. It would make life easier if the new arrival was known as Todd Two."

We could have a Todd Three and Todd Four etc. as well. The new rules would make it clear that every Todd in the game has equal status as an AU version of the Todd we saw on TV. The numbers only refer to the order in which they fell through the hole in the spacetime continuum and have nothing to do with rank.

What if we just say, everyone is free to write about and draw any character but has to show his/her creation to the respective owner. Either while it's in the making or after it's finished so any disagreements can be sorted out before the work is posted. This would save the artist the need to check out the guides for all characters, and it would save us the need to keep this particular part of the guides up to date.

This could work for game related fics and pics. Every character's owner has the right to decide whether the work gets posted.

- Also, Role Playing Borrowing rights for characters don't have to be put in the guides either. They can be arranged between the players and posted here but they don't have to be part of the guides. From my own experience I can say that I rarely look that part of the guides up anyway.

Perhaps the Borrowing rules for role playing could be (in big letters)

Do not role play any character officially owned by another player without asking permission. Do not be offended if the character's owner refuses permission.

- The probie rule: I suggest we discontinue this. If we turn a significant number of characters into NPCs every newbie can RP them and if one of them cathces their eye, he/she can adopt the charrie.

Good idea.

- The maximum character rule. I know this is an extra-touchy subject but it could solve the problem we wanted to avoid with the probie rule. If we allow people a max number of three SGA Wraith we can make sure, not all Wraith get snatched up. No limit on OCs though.

This still wouldn't solve the problem of a newcomer's favourite Wraith being taken already, though. Many Wraith NPCs would also have established bios and personalities. Imagine a new member being told "Kenny comes with a coffee empire plus staff and a complicated game history. Please study all available information about the coffee plots before role playing him."

Before I start any new drama about this: No one has to give up any of their current characters! The rule would be enforced with new people joining the game. This would set up a double standard but we can't avoid this.

I ended up with a lot of characters due to the complicated plots we used to have. I definitely don't want to keep them now there aren't any complicated plots.

[ciannwn]

The CO hive will stand alone and have its own business, the very same way it has always done with the only exception that it will not be bound to any of the old or possible new rules we're setting up for the main game threads. Some people play exclusively on the CO hive so won't notice a difference in game play. And those who play in both games can still do so.

Making the COH separate was suggested when there was a possibility of WWA being turned into a standard role playing game with strict rules. This wouldn't have been suitable for the COH and its clientèle.

The WWA game has always managed with one set of rules for the main role playing threads and another set for the COH. What we're trying to do now is simplify things for the main role playing threads. The only thing that could effect the COH is if my new approach to characters is adopted but all it would mean is that both Shaun and Shawn are established as being equally valid AU versions of the Shawn we saw on TV.

If the COH became a separate game, none of us 'oldies' would notice any difference no matter where we choose to spend most or all of our time. It could make things a bit complicated for new people, though.

"Yes, Steve is available in the WWA game so you can adopt him. If you want to play in the COH as well, though, Steve's already taken. You'll have to choose another character to Worship there or turn your WWA Steve into Steve Two."

[ciannwn]

Making a start with character pruning. The following can become NPCs

Dave
Jean-Luc
Darrell
Gordon
Hector
Ellia
Elric
Cavan
Shawn

Cavan needs a new bio which will be very short and on the lines of "He has a genetic condition which causes him to faint without regular treatment. See this mini fic for details (link to my Cavan story).

Shawn has had a long career in the game but his current status can be pruned down to something manageable for a new player.

1: He retired as one of Kenny's coffee empire executives so we can forget about Koffee Nirvana.

2: He and his Worshipper, Gloira, started a new business venture. Gloria can go off into the sunset on TPD-123 on the grounds that she couldn't take any more of his temperamental behaviour. They split up and he handed his share of the business over to her. He's now looking for a new Worshipper and wondering what to do with his life. He's still a superb chef, though.

[Draco-Stellaris]

Thanks, that's a good beginning for the characters!

There needn't be any problems over names if things are looked at from the perspective of the game world characters. "We've got a Todd on the Chill Out Hive. It would make life easier if the new arrival was known as Todd Two."

Yes. Any player could decide for themselves if they want to pick a completely different name or if they add a number or other means of distinction to their Todd's name.

This could work for game related fics and pics. Every character's owner has the right to decide whether the work gets posted.

Perhaps the Borrowing rules for role playing could be (in big letters)

I'll go and delete the borrowing additions in the guides then, that'll make them a lot less confusing I think. I can also trim down the entries for your above mentioned characters while I'm at it.

And I think the big letter rule will suffice. After all, RPers usually know not to meddle with other people's characters, so a simple sentence like that should suffice.

This still wouldn't solve the problem of a newcomer's favourite Wraith being taken already, though. Many Wraith NPCs would also have established bios and personalities. Imagine a new member being told "Kenny comes with a coffee empire plus staff and a complicated game history. Please study all available information about the coffee plots before role playing him."

Indeed. We can't do that. Maybe for he sake of simplifying we should abandon the whole Koffee Nirvana story and remove it from Kenny's history. It wouldn't be completely lost because it's still on Kenny's thunk thread for everyone who wants to read it.

The same could be done for other possible NPC characters with a complicated backstory.

[Draco-Stellaris]

Updated the Character Guides

- Borrowing rules have been removed for all charries.

- Instead we have a big, bold rule right in the first post: "Do not role play any character..."

- Turned ciannwn's characters mentioned above into NPCs.

- Turned Jareth and Tubbs into NPCs (Cat gave her okay)

- This was the hardest part. Without wanting to offend anyone, I have removed Leeta's and HR's OCs and turned their adopted charries into NPCs. From what I gathered, they have both made clear they left the game.

[ciannwn]

BIG PAUSE REQUIRED

Geeky still visits GW. I think we should ask her if she minds the idea of Kenny being retconned.

Indeed. We can't do that. Maybe for he sake of simplifying we should abandon the whole Koffee Nirvana story and remove it from Kenny's history. It wouldn't be completely lost because it's still on Kenny's thunk thread for everyone who wants to read it.

1: It's also in the Kenny's Hive role playing thread and the AU Asuran coffee plot we ran there is the reason why our Wraith now have an alliance with the Atlantis expedition.

If Mar and Geeky are never coming back, do we need to keep the Kenny's Hive role playing thread? Getting rid of it would make it easier to do a reset for Kenny. We could retcon the Wraith/Atlantis expedition and say the alliance is due to our boys taking up a new lifestyle.

2: WWA website game guides. There are a few references to the plot there but I suppose they can be weeded out.

3: Lorne's and Ford's bios never made it to the new character guide. (Ford runs a window washing company while Lorne left the Atlantis expedition to be Kenny's front man.) Lorne can be put back with the Atlantis expedition and someone can invent a new explanation for what Ford's been doing all this time. As we have an AU version of SGA where Betty's hive didn't get blown up, Ford has been alive somewhere in the Pegasus galaxy.

4: There's also a few references to the coffee plot in my Tuttleroot Soup mini fic. These could be edited out because they aren't essential to the plot.

The same could be done for other possible NPC characters with a complicated backstory.

I agree.

[ciannwn]

- Borrowing rules have been removed for all charries.

- Instead we have a big, bold rule right in the first post: "Do not role play any character..."

Which reminds me. The OOC index post has links to all our old rules etc. which are in various OOC posts. If we're simplifying things we need to get rid of our old versions. It would also make life easier if we put the new versions elsewhere so that more than one person can edit them

I've made a spam post in the WWANON forum. I don't think editing existing posts counts as activity during the allotted 90 day period.

[ciannwn]

Please note my Big Pause edit to the earlier post about Kenny.

[rora'sPA]

Just a query about the 'split' if that is the direction the WWA is to head in:
What happens in the OOC? At the moment we sometimes add little bits of RP in here, so what happens if, say, Craig decides to leave everyone fairy cakes in here, but someone from the separate WWA RPGs also has a Craig and wishes to make him do something in here?
I can see any newbies or anyone who has a newly-adopted character being confused by the 'oldies' still RPing 'their' character Or do we now say that the OOC is not to have any RP in at all?

[geekywraith]

BIG PAUSE REQUIRED

Geeky still visits GW. I think we should ask her if she minds the idea of Kenny being retconned.

1: It's also in the Kenny's Hive role playing thread and the AU Asuran coffee plot we ran there is the reason why our Wraith now have an alliance with the Atlantis expedition.

If Mar and Geeky are never coming back, do we need to keep the Kenny's Hive role playing thread? Getting rid of it would make it easier to do a reset for Kenny. We could retcon the Wraith/Atlantis expedition and say the alliance is due to our boys taking up a new lifestyle.

...

*waves hi to everyone* Kenny was never really mine. He can be "retconned". He's such a great character and deserves to be played. I'm not much into RP these days sorry. I still care about everyone.

[ciannwn]

Keeping the COH as a separate entity may be the only way to keep the other RPGs going, since there seems to be people who want to RP with stricter rules, but some of us only RP in the COH.

That's all in the past. The person who wanted to run WWA with stricter rules isn't going to. We can now carry on as we've always done.

DS and I are trying to simplify things for the main role playing threads. This won't affect the COH because it's only loosely associated with the main game world and has it's own rules. I think the only rule we've ever had in common is that players can't Borrow officially adopted characters without their owners' permission and we're keeping that one.

One of my suggestions is that we change the description of the game in the introduction. We could say this is a role playing game for people with busy real lives, health problems and disabilities so players turn up as and when they can manage it. Anyone looking for a game with strict rules will have to accept that WWA isn't suitable for their requirements so there's no point in joining.

The only place I can think of keeping the game records where various people can edit them is the free forum
Either that or a new GW account ('WWA Mod', for instance)is created purely for making game guide posts and updates, although there's no way to stop someone abusing that position of a disagreement happened.

The free forum has one drawback. Freeforum. org has a rule about free accounts - if there have been no posts within a period of 90 days the forum is regarded as inactive and deleted. I couldn't find anything about editing existing posts counting as activity. DS and I have been making sure the forum is kept active by making spam posts in there because nobody else uses it now. We could do with a few more volunteers for 'spam duty' just in case.

[ciannwn]

Just a query about the 'split' if that is the direction the WWA is to head in:
What happens in the OOC? At the moment we sometimes add little bits of RP in here, so what happens if, say, Craig decides to leave everyone fairy cakes in here, but someone from the separate WWA RPGs also has a Craig and wishes to make him do something in here?

There was another suggestion made for anyone who wanted a 'strict WWA game' when other players didn't. The 'strict game' people could have started an alternate universe version of WWA as a separate game and had their own OOC thread. The original WWA game would have carried on as normal and kept this OOC thread.

This isn't going to happen. Craig can leave fairy cakes in the OOC thread whenever he wants to as he's always done.

[ciannwn]

My back's bad today so I won't be around much unless it improves with rest. I'll answer PMs when I can.

[rora'sPA]

*waves hi to everyone* Kenny was never really mine. He can be "retconned". He's such a great character and deserves to be played. I'm not much into RP these days sorry. I still care about everyone.

*sends hugs to Geeky* Good to see you again

Re Ciannwn's posts: Okay, so basically WWA rules are being simplified a bit, but it's basically going to stay the same and if others want a 'strict' RPG they can create an AU offshoot of WWA. Is this correct, I still need to get through the brain fog and want to make sure I've understood it all

Hmm, okay, maybe I could try to make a post once a week or something... I'll see if I can think of anything

My back's bad today so I won't be around much unless it improves with rest. I'll answer PMs when I can.

*sends hugs*
*Craig and Aurora send some ginger back rub for Ciannwn*

I have to go to a health meeting now but will try and stop by tonight *leaves hugs*