Community AE Project: War Witch Task Force!

In honor of our beloved ectoplasmic entitie War Witch!

The idea is this we make a group effort to come up with an AE arc worthy of being called a TF. The trouble is only one person can post the arc so we need a skilled writer to bring our ideas together and post it...

But first we need a outline. Many Questions need answering...

Which Witch to use? At the moment there are TWO War witches! There is the Ghost War Witch in Croatoa and the Living Alternate reality War Witch in Pocket D.

The Ghost War Witch haunts Croatoa for a reason... but what is that reason? Is there a connection between her and the Cabal a descendant of someone who escaped the Red caps attack way back when? Could the TF be started by Ghostly War Witch wanting the Heroes to check on a living family member of one of her now dead Coven?

Pocket D War Witch hangs at the Pocket D and trains both Heroes and Villains... Could she be the Praetorian counterpart of our War Witch and shows no true favors either way? If so would her TF be neutral? If not what other reality is she from? Could the TF be to venture to this other reality?

This is what questions I came up... Lets get our Collective minds brewing and show our new Lead Designer a grand adventure!

Note I plot to create other Community AE Projects but first want to see how this works... Perhaps the next will be Back Alley Brawler's!

Why not make a competition out of it? Have everyone who wants to participate make their own War Witch TF and then you or someone else can pick the best of the lot. Bug the devs to DC the arc you picked and it'll be as close to official as you can get.

Well I can see the advantages of both.

First of all, the Community Project would involve a lot less work from each individual player and thus more would be inclined to get involved - I certainly would - not to mention the fact that putting up one each would take up one of our precious Story Slots, and a large number of people this late in the game already have all their's filled up with stories they are attached to which have ratings that they will lose by taking them down. Plus, if it were to be a contest it would just be the work of one player beating the others, whereas the Community Project would be the work of the one player who would hypothetically win the contest bolstered by many others to create a TF superior to what he could make alone.

And um...Well I can't really think of reasons for why the TF contest would be superior to be honest. The Community Project advantages are rather overwhelming XD

The anthology proposal sounds like a good idea. The potential problems I see with a collaborative approach on one big arc is in dividing the work out between the authors. Is it one guy to a mish? How will you deal with internal consistency/creative say? Etc.

I proposed a few months back that the MA Super Team do an arc with each person who wanted to writing a mission. My thought was that it would be written in order. First person does mission then sends files to next person, etc.. I was thinking it would be free form and I am not sure this method would work with an arc with a preset storyline.


WN

Well in regards to how the project would work, why do we have to divide in an ordered manner? It could just be one big forum discussion. There are an ordered list of entries we know we have to fill out to make an arc, so we could just discuss them all together and then just translate into an actual arc.

Personally I'm more in favour of it being a TF rather than a series of missions like a regular contact.

One response to the original post. Why choose between the two versions of WW? If it's a long TF, you'll have to multi-part it and can use both versions.

I love the concept, it'd be fun to be part of a community effort.

The anthology idea is neat, but I think we could pull off an actual focused TF with the proper organization. And accomplishing the TF as a group would be a much more interesting challenge!

I'd propose we break it down to jobs that need filled. People could volunteer for what they'd like to contribute, be it one or more positions:

• Director (organizer)
  Head writer
  Assistant writers (brainstorming, character bios, etc)
  Technical editor (typos/grammar)
  Dialogue editor
  Map designer
  Mechanics expert
  Costume designer
  Canon/Continuity editor
  Hosting (someone with an open slot)
  Play testers

I think that's a great plan! I'll volunteer for technical editor (ah, the perks of being a grammar nazi), as well as hosting (I don't have any arcs published at the moment) if needed and/or playtester.

Seems the Community Project is on!

Being the OP I take the Director (organizer).

I will offer my Story slot mainly because I suck at writing so what arcs I do have posted are only gaining 2 or 3 stars. If a better writer wishes to use their spot by all means do so! I figure a well worked story will gain a Dev choice or a Hall of fame and so be out of the slot soon.

Title of Arc will be Community Project: War Witch Task Force.

Technically we are limited by the AE system. We can't restrict the arc to a set number of players and it be 5 missions long.

However we can make it a challenge.

Each stage of the project we can discuss it here on the Forums or via PMs.

Lets start brainstorming.

I say we use the Ghost version of War Witch as the contact. That's the main universe version of War Witch. So lets figure out the Plot of our story.

I like the idea that she wants to check out the disappearance of a relative of her deceased Coven. However what happened to this person and who responsible I haven't a clue.

War Witch being a Ghost it be logical that she's limited in her own ability to do this task so there is a Story reason for her to seek the aid of a group of heroes.

If other people are up for it I have no particular objection to the idea of specific roles. I'd volunteer for Assistant Writer because of constraints on free time.

I can think of several reasons why the community writing project is not good, but I'll stick to the primary one:

It's going to be bad.


Not bad as in, say, so godawful that it would be 1-starred by everyone who chooses to play it, but bad as in 'bland,' 'vanilla,' and/or 'unimaginative.'

The reasons for this are simple.

1.) Writers in general do not work particularly well with other writers. Why? Because our ideas are the best. It doesn't matter whether whether that idea is to re-write "Sex Slaves of the Andorian Moon" from the point of view of the third guardsman from the left or whether that idea is to turn "War and Peace" into a musical. As far as we are concerned, no one can execute this idea like we can and the results are going to be groundbreaking.

When someone comes along and tells us that our idea, well, frankly... sucks, we do not react well to it, especially if that idea is just in the formative stages of development. Our first reaction when our baby gets torpedoed is to torpedo the idea of whoever torpedoed us, no matter how good their ideas are or how bad.

This happens no matter how many people are on the writing team.

2.) "But, Sister, sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live work... in fact don't most TV shows and movies have teams of writers?"

Yes, they do. But in one case, the various writers on the 'team' in reality are not writing as a team. They are working on their own bits in the show pretty much on their own. Their bits go to the powers-that-be, who subesequently either approve or axe them. There is actually very little collaboration that occurs during the actual writing process.

In the second case, the division of labor is clearly delineated from the start. One guy is the head honcho. The rest of the guys are shield-carriers who are responsible for whatever scene it is that the head honcho doesn't feel like fleshing out.

Why do a lot of Hollywood movies suck? Often it is because they try the 'collaborative' approach that inevitably leads to sucking.

Even novelists who team write generally do not 'collaborate' most of the time. Most of the time, what they do is alternate. One writes a chapter. Then the other writes a chapter based off what the first has done.

3.) This medium is too short for a truly collaborative effort anyway.

It might, emphasis on might, work if the 'team' was as small as the MA group. It will not work at all if the 'team' consists of everyone in the community. Why? Because there just isn't enough content to go around in a 5 mission arc. The inevitable result is that ideas will be cut, feelings will be hurt, and the final product will not be a work of collective genius, but a mish-mash of watered down, collective mediocrity.

Go with the competition. I can virtually guarantee you that the finished product of the author that wins will be much better than whatever the community as a whole collectively produces.

There is a reason that art is produced in a singular manner by individuals who all have their own individual process.

Art is done as one person Art shows have works from many artists forming a over all gallery.

However I agree with you Sister twelve being stuck to just 5 missions can make this project difficult that why I like the idea of specific roles to limit the chaos.

Brainstorming sessions do work. Some people can Write but can they make costumes to match? How about Bios of each group that something the other writers can do allowing the main writer to focus on the story.

The Idea of the Community Project is something of a Gift to the Devs from us. So having the contest would be the work of just one even if the other stories are great over all.

As I stated I want to host other such projects... BAB's TF comes to mind.

I'll pitch in as an assistant writer and play-tester (and maybe a bit of assistant directing, if needed)

As you said, for the first brainstorm, we need a basic concept/plot for the story.

I'd suggest we boil our ideas down to 25 words or less and post 'em here between now and Friday, Feb 5th This gives us the freedom to build on them as a group and keeps things simple. Plus, deadlines will be important to keep things moving.

We can all vote for our fav plot ideas the following week via forum PM and then move on to the next phase.

edit: updated dates.

Deadlines are important but by Wednesday be a bit so soon. We still haven't even finished organizing the basic Idea of the Community Project.

So Deadline for basic plot ideas is Feb 5th. This will give everyone two weeks to hash out a plot line and give us more time to get organized.

I have read many books from co-writers and anyone that read any of the Roleplay Forums here can see a form of co-writing.

Yes events could spiral out of control hence the reason for a Director.

I am fully in favor of this as a community effort, and I tip my hat to everyone involved. I'm sure that at the very least we'll come out "rather nice." volunteer for assistant writer!

hows about this for a possible catalyst

ever since her death, War Witch has served as a sort of mediator between the here and the hereafter, being one of three individuals I know of who linger between the two worlds (her, the woodsman, and ghost widow.) however, something is happening in the afterlife. souls are vanishing without a trace, one moment there, the next, gone. all involved are baffled, and the forces of magic are in turmoil with these happenings, for there is only one known way out of the afterlife

Resurrection.
(ideas on who's behind it? what they're doing? any way that you can think of that Apex could come back into the public eye?)

Then I must read trash... The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire series, is an alternate history book series, created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by historian Eric Flint.

Is one of my favorite story series and nearly every book been a Co-op but has a nice universal flow that don't destroy the story.

BUT THAT isn't important. What is important is a GAME Story arc and every mass produced GAME, not book, not article, not mag, not Painting (Thought I do consider games art) has more then one Developer!

This is a game Arc yes Great works been posted by a single person but it still a Game. Using Game Dev logic we can create an Arc that not trash. Now Sister Twelve if you don't want to take part fine don't your right this isn't a Democracy it's a Joint venture with a Director.

So guess that makes me Dictator and as such I can say "That just Cr*p get rid of it." And if someone's feelings get hurt they can post their own version of the arc themselves. Matter of fact stop shooting down an idea that hasn't even been 24 hours old and write up your own War Witch adventure to prove your right.

Then Democracy can be used by all the players who vote on there favorites just like every arc that gets Hall of Fame.

Or if you want to continue this debate make a Thread yourself just to do so.