About two and a half years ago, I created and ran a game of Lexicon, based on a fictional account of the decipherment of the Voynich Manuscript. The game got to letters O & P before we stopped playing due to player unavailability and lack of interest. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed both playing and running the game. This morning I told H that I was interested in playing/running a similar game again. She said she’d be interested in playing again too.

As I start to get better from this plague, I think I’d like to take a look at trying to run another game. Not the same one, but a different one.

I want to start with no opening statements and no opening direction. I will create a new blank Wiki for the purpose (since I know a lot more about how to set up and run Wikis now). I understand from others who have played this way that convergence of storyline generally happens within 3 turns.

So, are you interested? What you would be committing to:

Here are the rough parameters of the game I envision:

• Turns every two weeks. One letter per turn (approx 1 year to get through the entire alphabet). Wrap around or end when done based on player availability and sentiment, to be determined.
• Random start letter to be determined via some all-player-participating process (probably pick-a-number, then I add them together and find a letter in a random alphabet or something).
• Try not to impinge too much on existing fictions (unless authors say it’s okay - so fiction based on Rowling’s world would be okay with me).
• Roughly same rules as in Green.
• We’d probably start in April, after taxes in the U.S., but that date could be adjusted, depending on player need.

What you’d commit to as a player:

• Learn the game rules.
• Learn basics of Wiki editing, use and formatting. We’ll be using the latest MediaWiki version with various extensions I choose (you’re welcome to suggest others) to help overall gameplay and management. I will provide links and tutorials as I am able to. (honestly, if you can write an LJ article, you can probably write a Wiki article.)
• Per turn, write at least a paragraph of in-game article content and follow the game-rules vis a vis what you should link to and how.
• Requirement for reasonable responsiveness in e-mail or in-Wiki or you go on the backburner list for players - I’ll do what I can to support your play but if you don’t stay responsive, your articles may not be considered canon in the game.
• Understand that if/when we get convergence, you’re expected to play within the rules and existing content, and that working with other authors to make the world more interesting is usually more engaging for everyone.
• Share your writing at least to the point of having it remain readable in perpetuity. You may retain other rights beyond publishing it in the game (which will remain publicly readable as long as I can afford to make it available), but ideally you’d release it under some kind of Creative Commons license or share the blanket license applied to the game as a whole (probably CC-by-nc-SA).

There may also be space for folks who wish to help run the game. This means helping players out with Wiki issues and also with gameplay issues and making sure articles submitted by players conform to minimal guidelines established by the rules (or that we discover are helpful as we play). This could be done either in specific cases or handled by writing FAQ/help documents.

Drop me a note here or in e-mail to let me know if you’d be interested in playing. I may write specific invitations to specific people I’d like to see play, so don’t be shocked if you get one.

Tags:   green · lexicon · wiki game · writing game2 Comments