On the Spirit of the Multiverse

Hey everyone! To move forward with the ?berplot and take the Multiverse to the next level, I've got something I want everyone to carefully read over and consider, regarding everyone's participation in the Multiverse and the important core mechanic behind it.

From the the Introduction to the Multiverse:

The Multiverse is, in essence, a writing game in which all players have equal input into the story.

Take a moment to reflect on the meaning of that statement; there's a reason it is the first thing you read upon visiting the Multiverse, and for a very long time it was the only thing you saw.

This sentence distills the very spirit of the Multiverse; open, free, and non-exclusive collaboration for all.

I want everyone to be very aware of the exclusivity that writing your posts somewhere other than the roleplay itself introduces, whether or not you mean to do so. This includes posts written in RPG Write and other Etherpads, and also includes pre-planned scenes that get posted in bulk, or roleplaying with a select group of players and only when you're all available to "write the scene". It removes any possibility of an unexpected character ambling along and introducing a new plot twist simply through their presence, which is why the Multiverse was built in the way that it is.

Understand the concept of the "interaction interval": the frequency with which a collaborating author is enabled to react to and respond to content; smaller posts with less action covered creates a high interaction interval, allowing the other players to respond and interact with more granular content. Larger posts in which weeks are spanned create low interaction intervals, effectively eliminating other players' chances of reacting to something happening earlier in the post (which can be a daunting fear, as no one wants to "void" another player's 2,000 word post).

This has implications under the Multiverse's rules for combat, as well. Players having written a single large post only get counted as one post if it comes to blows, effectively eliminating any advantage players might have by uniting together. Instead of writing large posts together, it's always a good idea to let multiple players add their character's pieces as their own posts. This can be done very artfully and read quite linearly, and should have no drawbacks beyond a change in paradigm.

I have nothing against collaborating on a post reflecting a single action; this is very much in the spirit of working together to produce higher quality works of art. However, when you write a series of actions by multiple players in this fashion, it makes it impossible for other players to intervene in the events contained therein, resulting in a completely unfair and exclusive environment for other players.

If we're going to move forward with some of the more cohesive and overarching plots, we absolutely must?every single one of us?make an effort to be inclusive and supportive of the introduction of unexpected events by unfamiliar players. There's going to be a lot of them in the coming months.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/2l2wPfZhfiQ/viewtopic.php

drudge report Presidential Election 2012 Incumbent politico Tammy Baldwin house of representatives paul ryan