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Lexicon (the rules of World Building)

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:18 am
by BlanchPrez

Here's the rules as posted originally.



[url]http://www.20by20room.com/2003/11/lexicon_an_rpg.html[/url]


[quote]The basic idea is that each player takes on the role of a scholar, from before scholarly pursuits became professionalized (or possibly after they ceased to be). You are cranky, opinionated, prejudiced and eccentric. You are also collaborating with a number of your peers -- the other players -- on the construction of an encyclopedia describing some historical period (possibly of a fantastic world).



The game is played in 26 turns, one for each letter of the alphabet.



1. On the first turn, each player writes an entry for the letter 'A'. You come up with the name of the entry, and you write 100-200 words on the subject. At the end of the article, you sign your name, and make two citations to other entries in the encyclopedia. These citations will be phantoms -- their names exist, but their content will get filled in only on the appropriate turn. No letter can have more entries than the number of players, either, so all citations made on the first turn have to start with non-A letters.



2. On the second and subsequent turns, you continue to write entries for B, C, D and so on. However, you need to make three citations. One must be a reference to an already-written entry, and two must be to unwritten entries. (On the 25th and 26th turns, you only need to cite one and zero phantom entries, respectively, because there won't be enough phantom entries, otherwise.)



It's an academic sin to cite yourself, you can never cite an entry you've written. (OOC, this forces the players to intertwingle their entries, so that everybody depends on everyone else's facts.) Incidentally, once you run out of empty slots, obviously you can only cite the phantom slots.



3. Despite the fact that your peers are self-important, narrow-minded dunderheads, they are honest scholars. No matter how strained their interpretations are, their facts are accurate as historical research can make them. So if you cite an entry, you have to treat its factual content as true! (Though you can argue vociferously with the interpretation and introduce new facts that shade the interpretation.)



4. This little game will probably play best on a wiki, and it should take a month or so to play to completion. At the end of it, you'll have a highly-hyperlinked document that details a nice little piece of collaborative world-building. [/quote]


I thought I was a mod in this board... guess not. Can someone sticky this thread for me? Thanks!



Chris


Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:49 pm
by Skyman
Bumping this up

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 5:55 pm
by BlanchPrez

[quote="Skyman"]Bumping this up[/quote]

Can you just sticky this?



We need a mod in this board.



Chris


Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:17 pm
by Skyman
I'm going to see what I can do for adding moderator(s) by asking Winter. I say that in the plural because this is a lot of work for one person. I'm thinking Blnch Prez, Cthulhu or BoC to possibly share duties since you guys expressed interested in this. Until I can get around to figuring this out just let me know if your interested in the responsibility and the team work required to make this work. Until then let me know what you would like me to do in my limited capacity to help with this thread since I'm currently the only one right now who can make adjustments...which are limited.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:03 pm
by BlanchPrez
I'm up for it. I was mod in this thread on the old board.

Chris

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:41 pm
by Skyman

[quote="BlanchPrez"]I'm up for it. I was mod in this thread on the old board.



Chris[/quote]

Yes I remember. I was expecting you to do it again. I was thinking we should delegate some of the responsibilities so it's not all on your shoulders. Such as we should have some one continue the glossary of terms as they develop and keep score of those that make dibs. Stuff like that which might not involve moderator priviledges. Thoughts?


Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:08 pm
by BlanchPrez

[quote="Skyman"]Yes I remember. I was expecting you to do it again. I was thinking we should delegate some of the responsibilities so it's not all on your shoulders. Such as we should have some one continue the glossary of terms as they develop and keep score of those that make dibs. Stuff like that which might not involve moderator priviledges. Thoughts?[/quote]

That's not such a bad idea.



Chris


Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:25 pm
by Skyman

[quote="BlanchPrez"]That's not such a bad idea.



Chris[/quote]

now we just need some folks to volunteer:)....anyone?


Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:01 am
by BlanchPrez
Okay, so I've been thinking about this game agan, and was wanting to start it up once more.

All we need are some players.

Anyone interested? If there's enough interest, I will start a topic, and then create a Wiki, so we can track things easier.

Chris

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:51 pm
by Uber_snotling
Yes, I would be interested in contradicting your foolish interpretations of the neobaroque half-elven Imperial Mime Troupes coup d'etat attempt.

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 12:52 pm
by BlanchPrez
All right, it's been a few YEARS now, I figured I would drag this thread up again.

I loved this game and would love to do another one. There are a number of free Wiki's out there, so making these articles should be no problem.

Anyone interested? We'd need at least four people to make a decent wiki of any topic.

Chris

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 8:27 am
by Cthulhu
I'd be up for it again. We're starting over right?

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:42 pm
by BlanchPrez

[quote="Cthulhu"]I'd be up for it again. We're starting over right?[/quote]

Yes, completly from scratch. New topic and all.



Chris


Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 9:21 am
by BlanchPrez
Come on, people! There has to be more than the two of us interested in this.

Chris