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Stupid question, due to being a FNG at the time of this post. I assume with all the stories I have read through that there may or may not be some people around here that would like to partake in a collaborative writing effort? Sci fi space based, but I have nothing set in stone beyond that. And I am not one to rule out the use of magic-like abilities...

Thoughts?

Its intriguing, though with the fan fics I'm already working on, and everything else in my life, I'm not sure how much time I could commit to such a joint project. So I'm hesitant to commit, because the thing about a joint project is that if any one member can't keep up, it tends to drag the whole thing down.

Hm. Do you envision this being more like a roleplaying game, or more like a collaborative attempt to write a novel?

A variation on the former ("write your own country," with the game dynamic being interactions between the countries) was actually fairly popular on SDN about five years ago, but we kind of lost momentum and attempts to run such games petered out due to lack of participation. There are still several people around with fond memories of those days, myself included.

Simon_Jester wrote:Hm. Do you envision this being more like a roleplaying game, or more like a collaborative attempt to write a novel?

A variation on the former ("write your own country," with the game dynamic being interactions between the countries) was actually fairly popular on SDN about five years ago, but we kind of lost momentum and attempts to run such games petered out due to lack of participation. There are still several people around with fond memories of those days, myself included.

A collaborative attempt to write a story; novels get published, and I'm more looking to scratch my creative itch with other people (as well as take some characters of mine out for a spin!) and see what we can jointly come up with. The forum I ran with some friends a couple years back, we built up some nice momentum before a series of life-altering events kinda killed it. Other boards I have joined seem to be populated by pubescent teenagers that can't assemble some decent prose to save their lives, assuming they even bother contributing. I figure HERE, it's almost completely space-based, due to the domain name, so I might actually have a shot at something!

Well, I'm interested, though the scope of my contributions will likely be somewhat limited, because my prior projects can't just be put on the back burner (I already don't update my existing fics as often as I'd like to).

Understood, Rom. I know you can write good prose, I've seen some! I'm not looking to waste anyone's time, or ask more than someone can give. It's important to put together something that flows, but is also fun and entertaining.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can't promise I'll be able to post major updates regularly. I don't know what exactly you're looking for yet, but I'm always happy to participate in discussions regarding world-building, plot development, etc., and I may be able to contribute some short stories or something on occasion, depending on how the setting you aim to create develops. If that works?

That works.

Here's an example of what I am looking for, and kinda what I would like to start off with:

https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/ ... kirmish/ic

I would be interested but like TRR I can't promise regular input. You may have seen some of the stuff I've written, either i the previous make-a-nation games Simon mentioned, or my ongoing fanfic, or the infamous SCRAMming Up and BARIS games. Ask Simon

Gotcha; what about taking some of your characters out for a stroll, so to speak? That's what I'm going to do. It will not be 'canon' as it will take place outside the main storyline I am working on for my novels, but I still enjoy taking them out for a run.

Well, my fanfic doesn't really contain any original characters, even ones I've added are based on real people so they aren't "mine."

As for the nation-state or BARIS/SCRAMMing characters, well, we have an authoritarian monarch with a fondness for shooting prisoners on live TV, a crazy ex German rocket scientist who is probably drunk, and a totally insane kamikaze space pilot respectively. That could be fun.

I'd be interested in portraying a civilization which is heavily automated, sort of an extension of current economic trends towards automation replacing jobs. Probably socialist, but with a fair amount of internal conflict from anti-machine Luddite types, as well as people who are frustrated by a society in which there just isn't that much for an ordinary human to do with their life that's productive.

The protagonist might be an adventurer who left his/her home planet and goes travels around exploring the galaxy because... what the hell else is he/she going to do with their life? Basically someone who goes looking for trouble for no other reason than because he/she's bored.

I don't know if that would work with what you have in mind, or if I'd go with that in the end anyway. Just something I'm tossing out there.

That could be interesting.

The scenario I have in mind to start everyone off is a central trade hub gets attacked by a pirate militia. It's called Central not only because it is a center of trade and commerce, but for lack of a better word is a crossover point between universes. It's open to any and all SF series; the original setup I had going had me and another friend playing our own original characters in large starships, another guy in a Colonial Battlestar and a fourth person in a Venator-class star destroyer. There was also a fifth person playing an assassin or spy in a stealth ship, doing running around on the ground because he wasn't very good at the space combat aspect, but could do James Bond-style scenes really well.

There was a plot twist we were building towards where the antagonists are anti-heroes that faced off against the protagonists/players' characters in the past and lost, and are aiming for a rematch, with the billions on planet Central caught in the crossfire.

That's just to start though; I have plenty of other thoughts to run with too, but figure that this'd be a good one to warm up on, and see who else might be interested and what they can contribute.

Well, some SF universes may simply be incompatible with one another. But that aside, I like this.

But that premise raises all kinds of questions. For a start:

1. Is Central unique, the only such gateway?

2. Who controls it? If its one faction, they're likely going to be by far the dominant power in the multi-verse. They'd pretty much have to be to hold it against all comers, in any case. Is it a UN-type body? Is it plagued by the sort of internal divisions and beurocratic hamstringing of the real-world UN? Or does no one control it, leading to a type of Wild West-style free for all?

And if the latter, what happens when one of the more omnicidal SF factions, like the Daleks, comes through?

3. Relating to all that, how is such a vital strategic asset/trading hub/choke point so weakly guarded that a pirate militia can launch a credible attack against it?

Not trying to be hyper-critical here. Its an interesting premise, precisely, in part, because it poses a lot of questions that need credible, consistent answers.

Edit: Another question: Does "any SF universe" include fantasy as well as science fiction?

All right, now that I have you curious, I'll see what I can do to answer your questions.

1. I'm going to say no; it's more a canvas on which events unfold.

2. Being a trade hub, it's controlled by dozens of entities, including but not limited to governments (both human and nonhuman), corporations, as well as private parties. Because it is not controlled (or even dominated) by any one organization, there's no real supreme authority. There's a democratically elected governing body (more an oligarchy tbh) that oversees and regulates activities within the star system. Construction, maintenance & support of the militia garrison, planetary defenses, surface facilities like maintaining buildings, cities, roads, civil infrastructure etc and such that are paid for by trade tariffs and taxes on inbound & outbound merchandise.

3. Because defenses are such that they are paid for by everyone, technically, and because it lies at an interstellar crossroads (like small towns that would spring up around an oasis in a desert) its defenses are less than a dedicated Fortress World, to use the WH40K term. It still has mobile assets for police and system security duties, as well as orbital and surface defenses to repel minor aggressors, but nothing too overboard. No giant surface to orbit gun batteries that can smash fleets of capital ships from outside lunar orbit, or massive star fortresses that can duel with an entire armada on their own. The original story I had implied that there was an insider that scrambled/disrupted planetary defenses, allowing said pirates to swoop in, as well as allow a couple of surface defense batteries to target the ships in orbit.

EDIT: If it has starships, I'd say it's good to go. So off the top of my head, that would include Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5 (an old fave of mine), Mass Effect, Warhammer 40k, Sins of a Solar Empire, Battlestar Galactica... there's a bunch of others I'm not remembering the names of ATM, some are tabletop games, some are video games, and some are movies, but am drawing a blank right now.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, I have been toying with the idea of a big ole brawl, fleet on fleet, with participants facing off against something like assimilated Reapers. But that's its own separate thing.

stardust wrote:All right, now that I have you curious, I'll see what I can do to answer your questions.

1. I'm going to say no; it's more a canvas on which events unfold.

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by that. Is there more than one such location as Central?

2. Being a trade hub, it's controlled by dozens of entities, including but not limited to governments (both human and nonhuman), corporations, as well as private parties. Because it is not controlled (or even dominated) by any one organization, there's no real supreme authority. There's a democratically elected governing body (more an oligarchy tbh) that oversees and regulates activities within the star system. Construction, maintenance & support of the militia garrison, planetary defenses, surface facilities like maintaining buildings, cities, roads, civil infrastructure etc and such that are paid for by trade tariffs and taxes on inbound & outbound merchandise.

So the governing body is composed of representatives from the various factions that use Central?

What sort of forces does it have at its disposal? Because if they're basically sitting on a portal to every SF-verse, then the potential threats they could face range from conventional militaries with star ships, to shapeshifting/body-snatching infiltrators, to alien plagues, to beings that can rewrite history and the laws of physics on a whim, to literal gods.

3. Because defenses are such that they are paid for by everyone, technically, and because it lies at an interstellar crossroads (like small towns that would spring up around an oasis in a desert) its defenses are less than a dedicated Fortress World, to use the WH40K term. It still has mobile assets for police and system security duties, as well as orbital and surface defenses to repel minor aggressors, but nothing too overboard. No giant surface to orbit gun batteries that can smash fleets of capital ships from outside lunar orbit, or massive star fortresses that can duel with an entire armada on their own. The original story I had implied that there was an insider that scrambled/disrupted planetary defenses, allowing said pirates to swoop in, as well as allow a couple of surface defense batteries to target the ships in orbit.

If their defences are that easily compromised, then you'd think that someone (I mentioned the Daleks earlier) would have crushed them and seized Central by now.

A major impetus for a story could be why this hasn't happened yet.

I can think of a couple possibilities, at least:

1. There are so many factions that want to control it that no one faction can do so, because if any one of them tried to seize it, all the others would move to oppose them.

2. Some covert entity or outside force (like the Q?) is intervening behind the scenes to make sure nothing gets too far out of hand.

EDIT: If it has starships, I'd say it's good to go. So off the top of my head, that would include Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5 (an old fave of mine), Mass Effect, Warhammer 40k, Sins of a Solar Empire, Battlestar Galactica... there's a bunch of others I'm not remembering the names of ATM, some are tabletop games, some are video games, and some are movies, but am drawing a blank right now.

"Has starships" is probably more flexible than you realize. For example, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise, which is largely fantasy, has starships if you include the comics, I think.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, I have been toying with the idea of a big ole brawl, fleet on fleet, with participants facing off against something like assimilated Reapers. But that's its own separate thing.

I like a good fleet battle, but I'm not sure the Reapers are high enough on the SF ladder to be the Big Bads for a fleet engagement in a setting like this. Though I'll grant I'm not that familiar with the Reapers.

By most SF scales, the Reapers really aren't that high-end for a fleet battle. For that you'd want, oh, an Imperium of Man Battlefleet/Tyranid Hive Fleet/Necron Tomb World Fleet (40K), the Dalek Fleet fromt he Last Great Time War, the Imperial Navy from SW, the collected Asgard/Ancient/Wraith fleets from Stargate or something like that. Those are ones I can come up with as high-end without requiring godlike beings or similar.

Though if this place has links to every SF verse, then you have a reasonable reason for why no-one has seized control: the Time Lords don't allow it. The Doctor mentions that travel between universes was easy when the Time Lords were still around, so maybe they enforce some grand non-aggression treaty for the place.

I'm all up for helping write an epic space battle. If you've read my Thirteenth Tribe fic you'll know I'm quite good at it

The Q might be another possibility, if only because they're one of the few factions that seem to outclass even the Time Lords.

Or we could make up an original faction, I suppose.

Rom's kinda hit the nail on the head; if any one faction managed to seize Central, all the others would band together to kick its ass. And because it'd be something open to multiple universes, there's a fair number of groups with a vested interest in basically maintaining the status quo.

I tend to avoid godlike beings and godmodding as it opens the door to all sorts of behaviors that just suck the joy out of any endeavor. Why deploy a strike force to an enemy target when your resident superbeing can wave their arms and make it all go away?

Further, I tend to pull my starship ideas from movies and games, as those are the ones I have the most familiarity with... not much of a comic books person, sadly. But that's due to financial and space constraints - my bookshelves are loaded with military sci fi novels! Oh and models I've built. Because STARSHIPS!!! HNNNNGGG *foams at the mouth a little*

Making up an original faction seems unecessary when we have powerful enough factions already accessible.

The Q do have great powers, but they largely don't seem interested in involving themselves (like the Time Lords I suppose) but I don't recall them demonstrating inter-universal travel.

Perhaps there is some multiversal treaty between the Q, the Time Lords and other "Higher Powers" to keep this place neutral.

Indeed.

Anyways, does this (or something similar) sound like something people might be interested in contributing to? The big appeal for ME is to tell the story but not completely from my perspective - it's not all ME writing it, so I only have a vague idea of where it's going, and therein lies the fun!

Yeah, I'm in.

I think the "Treaty of Higher Powers" thing works.

I have another idea for a character- a border-control/customs agent or something working at Central, who has to deal with the weird stuff of the week passing through.

Awesome.

Anyone else, perhaps?

I'm definitely interested, and I'm sure I can workup a character or three. Are we limited to established SF universes (ST, SW, SG, B5, 40K etc) or can we use our own original universes?

Your own original universes are TOTALLY allowed! It's what I'll be using!

Is there a specific format for starting something, like a tagline in the subject or something similar?