OT - Anyone feel like making up history?

[spoon]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Does it mean I am a hopeless nerd that I find this idea interesting?

I think running a website for a nerdy computer game doesn't help much either...

[Paul1980au]

Not unless it has other non nerd stuff.

[spoon]

Originally posted by Cipher7071:
I couldn't get through the link. Will try again another time.

I had trouble earlier, but got through today... here is the text...

Lexicon: an RPG
Posted by Neel Krishnaswami on November 20, 2003 at 05:43 PM

Here's a little roleplaying game that I've been toying with. I call it the Lexicon rpg, in honor of its inspiration, Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars.

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.

The owner of the wiki should set the general subject of the Lexicon. I suggest that he or she make use of the technique of "open reference" when describing the historical period: "You are all revisionist scholars from the Paleotechnic Era arguing about how the Void Ghost Rebellion led to the overthrow of the cyber-gnostic theocracy and the establishment of the Third Republic." What a cyber-gnostic theocracy is, or what happened to the first two republics, or what the Paleotechnic Era is are all unknown -- they are named to specifically to evoke a mood and inspire the other players' creativity. (This is an idea which I've first seen in fully articulated form in the character creation rules for Robin Laws's Hero Wars game.)

[spoon]

Originally posted by Cyrien:
Imagine doing an Encylopedia Galactica with this method.

Yeah, doing an SE4 Version of this would be super-fun. In a hoplessly nerdy way, of course.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Paul1980au:
Not unless it has other non nerd stuff.

The very act of running a web site is nerdy in and of itself. All web sites are nerdy.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

unless anybody objects, it'll be se4 history from say 2250-2700? written from 3200?

ok, so far:
Narf
Geoschmo?
Krsqk

how do you set up a wiki site?

[ February 25, 2004, 06:40: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[President_Elect_Shang]

Originally posted by Cyrien:
I think I am also a hopeless nerd then. This looks fun to me.

Imagine doing an Encylopedia Galactica with this method.

If I had time I would love to do something like that. But I don't.

PS: The fact that I have my BA in history couldn't have possibly influenced my liking this either...

Hopeless nerd, mmm I don’t know if I would say that about myself.

The Encyclopedia Galactica sounds good though!

No time, I hear that one. Times three in my case, one wants help putting on her shirt right now, hold on everyone.

Ya, that was my first thought also; in my case that is. I still have a way to go before the BA in History. Speaking of which I should not be here, I still have a paper to write on 17th and 18th century Ottoman Society. And I still have a Mod to get back to work on.

No Time,
No Time,
No Time,
,emiT oN
,emiT oN
,emiT oN

[ February 26, 2004, 01:57: Message edited by: President Elect Shang ]