[Idea] Codex original lore initiative

[IDtenT]

Who should have the right to cut, edit, paste, and (gently) direct other people's effort? We will argue about that till the day Internet die.

Meanwhile, who will write most of the stuffs?

I think you're doubting the Codex's ability to work together and not argue. :D

Secondly, we don't know that yet - but it's unlikely to rest in an individual's hands.

 

[laclongquan]

Considering both Codex in Space Saga and WoD Vampire Masquerade London, Codexers argue all the time every time a decision need to be made. Seriously.

 

[tiagocc0]

In any group there must someone in charge who takes all the decisions, everyone else opinion is just a suggestion.
Since IDtenT made the thread he is in charge until he chooses someone else.

The project must keep a quick pace, if something requires further discussion it should be made in another thread where anyone can discuss all they want and when they reach a conclusion they go back to the main thread with the result and so the one in charge decides what to do.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Monty]

This could be interesting. Although, as others have mentioned, there will have to be some sort of process for editing and approving / vetoing ideas and themes, perhaps one casting vote or overall editor in addition to a community process.

There could be a flood of ideas so there has to be a way to come up with something coherent, as well as point out when ideas just don't work.

I vote B.

edit: as tiagocc0 has just said

 

[Lagole Gon]

In the grim future...
in a galaxy far, far away...
everything is shit.
Civilization collapsed twice now. No metal weapons. Steel sword is like a magic artifact here. Melonheads and machette mutant gangs.
Stone age loooow magic Dark Sun + trippy prog rock covers + some Cleveology.

Spoiler

There. Brilliant. No need to thank me bros.

 

[alkeides]

We definitely need some Cleveology in it.

 

[tuluse]

This seems interesting. I tentatively vote for A) scifi. I sort of agree with the posts above that say we should have some kind of underlying theme or central idea and build off of that rather than restrict ourselves with arbitrary genre definitions.

A random idea that came to me while reading this thread: An interstellar civilization that relies on magic. Space ships were never invented. Travel between planets requires a wizard casting teleport or dimension door or the like. This favors small groups and amounts of goods being transported. So planets need to be self sufficient (no factory planets vs farming planets). Wizards are highly valuable, but it can be dangerous being a wizard because there are many groups that would love to have their own teleport machine and would not mind using coercion to get what they want.

 

[tiagocc0]

This seems interesting. I tentatively vote for A) scifi. I sort of agree with the posts above that say we should have some kind of unberlying theme or central idea and build off of that rather than restrict ourselves with arbitrary genre definitions.

A random idea that came to me while reading this thread: An interstellar civilization that relies on magic. Space ships were never invented. Travel between planets requires a wizard casting teleport or dimension door or the like. This favors small groups and amounts of goods being transported. So planets need to be self sufficient (no factory planets vs farming planets). Wizards are highly valuable, but it can be dangerous being a wizard because there are many groups that would love to have their own teleport machine and would not mind using coercion to get what they want.

Wow, that's interesting!

 

[IDtenT]

tuluse: Would technology (steam, electricity, etcetera) be possible in this universe?

 

[tuluse]

tuluse: Would technology (steam, electricity, etcetera) be possible in this universe?

There's no reason why not. You could set this with modern technology with you wanted to. The only thing is that anything that came from the space race would not exist because no one ever tried to go to space when a wizard could take them to another planet without the hassle.

 

[IDtenT]

Magic vs. Technology has much potential for friction (especially when magic can be used for stuff tech is generally used for, rather than just fireballs) - so that makes for an interesting setting.

I'd also wager that space race has potential as it can allow for more quantity.

 

[parksungjun]

communist elves
not the hippy free-love kind
i mean full on dictatorship of the proletariat

imagine if the Iranian Revolution had succeeded in tandem with a strong socialist movement. Something like this.

After the conquest of their lands by Humankind, the elvish populace were placed under a puppet rule that promoted human policies of multiculturalism and capitalism. However, this inevitably led to the creation of a superwealthy human aristocracy and the de facto annexation of much of the elvish coastline by human and dwarven trade republics. After the collapse of the world economy and the Balkanization of the human territory, a combination of dissatisfaction with the economic system combined with elvish nationalism led to a full on revolt that the aristocracy was unable to stop due to the loss of their power bases back in human territory. The rulers fled to their old holdings, or what was left of them, while an elvish worker's union quickly seized power and declared a new way of things.
The "Kindred's Revolutionary Committee" is the head of the "Kindred's Revolutionary Protectorate," a worker's paradise where every elf is equal.
They are led by the Leader, whom takes on the name Kin to represent their obligation to the common worker.
The most recent successor, Kin the Young One, succeeds his predecessors Kin the Young Elf and Kin the Elf-Sung.

Just throw in your usual vampire vikings that used to raid the coastline for victims, prior to the Declaration of Saint Vladimir, which converted most vampires to the human main religion and the commercialization of blood for their use, greenskin warrior monks ala Tibet and China, i dunno what else is necessary. The last bastion of mankind being its former penal colony, isolated from the rest of the world by thousands of miles of ocean? who knows.

 

[Storyfag]

I approve of your necromantic shenanigans

 

[Cassidy]

Rather than Good vs. Evil, Order vs. Chaos...

How about Incline vs. Decline being the primordial dichotomy of the universe?

 

[80Maxwell08]

Rather than Good vs. Evil, Order vs. Chaos...

How about Incline vs. Decline being the primordial dichotomy of the universe?

I don't think Incline vs Decline would be good from a world building perspective considering something that is here could be elsewhere and vice versa. Perhaps a society where they are always striving for improvement would be better.

 

[IDtenT]

Rather than Good vs. Evil, Order vs. Chaos...

How about Incline vs. Decline being the primordial dichotomy of the universe?

Incline is just decline from the opposite side of the slope.

 

[grotsnik]

I always wanted to do a kind of shanty-town fantasy. The setting completely restricted to a vast sunbaked hilly favela of tin-sheet apartments and mud and filthy electrical cables and the sewer outlets of the 'proper city'. And every day colossal wheeled iron juggernauts, carrying travellers to the 'proper city', just plough their way through the streets, tearing up houses and shunting entire facades to either side, remaking the layout of the town. (And obviously every time one of these breaks down, the inhabitants charge in and ransack the land-ship and spend years trying to sell branded goods to each other). The slum's been there for so long that creatures have evolved to survive in it; there's a predator that lurks in the mud of an alleyway and imitates the sound of a lost tourist or a narcotics-dealer's whistle, there are little chimp-like squawking creatures that seem to devolved from feral children in order to survive on the rooftops. And so the whole narrative plays out as a cross between a crime saga and a frontier tale, with the various slum-dweller families desperately living day-by-day through dogged entrepreneurship - which may just result in their being robbed or murdered by the various gangs or desperate, hallucinogenic-tea-addled llone criminals - or making quick cash by committing daring raids against the iron convoys that pass through (a short, brutal life).

A fantasy slum as a slum, essentially, rather than 'colourful backdrop for Thieves Guild leaders, beggars and bandits who just hang about in an alleyway waiting to get their come-uppance when they foolishly threaten Badass McHero.' City of Gods, if you like.

 

[Tigranes]

This seems interesting. I tentatively vote for A) scifi. I sort of agree with the posts above that say we should have some kind of unberlying theme or central idea and build off of that rather than restrict ourselves with arbitrary genre definitions.

A random idea that came to me while reading this thread: An interstellar civilization that relies on magic. Space ships were never invented. Travel between planets requires a wizard casting teleport or dimension door or the like. This favors small groups and amounts of goods being transported. So planets need to be self sufficient (no factory planets vs farming planets). Wizards are highly valuable, but it can be dangerous being a wizard because there are many groups that would love to have their own teleport machine and would not mind using coercion to get what they want.

So this doesn't get buried: love this idea, it also lets you bring in a lot of 'planeswalking' stuff without the interdimensional hijinks, and I'm pretty sick of space sagas. It also gives each writer a lot of freedom to flesh out their own planet(s) if they so desire, e.g. a planet featuring grotsnik's slumland.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

We definitely need some Cleveology in it.

This. Neanderthal/Melonhead wars.

 

[Ulminati]

Could always go steampunky a la arcanum. Throw in a funky environment for extra lulz.

Say, the world never got past steam power. All the trees were chopped down for coal and a dense layer of smoke blocked out the sun, plunging the world into a second ice age. The little cold and wood that remains is a highly covetd resource as the only means to keep warm and propel the giant steam trains that link the few fractured strongholds that remain.

These trains are - naturally - being preyed upon by viking raiders riding mammoths in steam power armor.

 

[tuluse]

Following up on my original idea. How do wizards know where to teleport? I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure which is best. For finding new habitable planets, I would think some kind of clairvoyance spell would do the trick. Sometimes you just want to go to a specific place that's already been found though. So my ideas.

1) There are magical coordinates. This is very straightforward, so it seems lame to me, but maybe I'm wrong.

2) Similar to 1, wizards have a kind of roadmap with directions. This would imply a kind of network behind the dimension doors, which could mean you couldn't accidentally end up in deep space since each exit from the network would be a *place*

3) Each world has a secret magical name attached to it and you need to know that name to go there. This seems much more magical to me, but I don't know how you would specify where on a planet you would end up.

4) A wizard can infuse a stone (or I guess whatever) with a magical property that lets other wizard home in on it.

 

[Fenris 2.0]

Well, we could rip the Stargates from the Stargate-Setting. Wizards could be Descendants of some old Race and the only ones able to operate them. The Portals could be the only known Way for faster-then-light-travel and to travel to another World you need the correct runewords - wich are usually hidden in huge bunkers full of mutants and traps deep below the surface ? It could take a lot of "Mana" to open a Portal, so that travelling between worlds is rare. Now if "Mana" is nothing that simply regenerates, but has to be found ? Some Crystals or Drugs or meditating near "Nodes" ? On most Nodes would probably already stand some wizards tower or Mana Crystals/Elixirs could be very expensive.

We could have different Tech-Levels for different Worlds - from primeval worlds to advanced civilications (as long as there is no FTL Travel).

Wizard-Clans that try to strengthen their bloodlines could be a plothook ?

 

[Storyfag]

3) Each world has a secret magical name attached to it and you need to know that name to go there. This seems much more magical to me, but I don't know how you would specify where on a planet you would end up.

You wouldn't. Oh, the joys of exploring new worlds! But maybe you could specify that you want to end up on dry land and in a temperate spring/summer.

Well, we could rip the Stargates from the Stargate-Setting.

I see this as a natural extension of the above teleportation idea. That is: after teleporting into a world and scouting it, the wizard(s) construct a portal back home, which allows more regular travel/travel in larger numbers.

Cue invasions through portals and epic struggles at such choke points.

 

[Ovg]

There has to be trannies, multi headed dicks and ITZ.

Apart from that maybe some kind of steampunky stuff?

 

[laclongquan]

I always wanted to do a kind of shanty-town fantasy. The setting completely restricted to a vast sunbaked hilly favela of tin-sheet apartments and mud and filthy electrical cables and the sewer outlets of the 'proper city'. And every day colossal wheeled iron juggernauts, carrying travellers to the 'proper city', just plough their way through the streets, tearing up houses and shunting entire facades to either side, remaking the layout of the town. (And obviously every time one of these breaks down, the inhabitants charge in and ransack the land-ship and spend years trying to sell branded goods to each other). The slum's been there for so long that creatures have evolved to survive in it; there's a predator that lurks in the mud of an alleyway and imitates the sound of a lost tourist or a narcotics-dealer's whistle, there are little chimp-like squawking creatures that seem to devolved from feral children in order to survive on the rooftops. And so the whole narrative plays out as a cross between a crime saga and a frontier tale, with the various slum-dweller families desperately living day-by-day through dogged entrepreneurship - which may just result in their being robbed or murdered by the various gangs or desperate, hallucinogenic-tea-addled llone criminals - or making quick cash by committing daring raids against the iron convoys that pass through (a short, brutal life).

A fantasy slum as a slum, essentially, rather than 'colourful backdrop for Thieves Guild leaders, beggars and bandits who just hang about in an alleyway waiting to get their come-uppance when they foolishly threaten Badass McHero.' City of Gods, if you like.

Why on Earth would (and could) the dwellers keep inhabitting that area? There should be some logical answer to that:
---Tentative answer: the area is a giant wasteland where the 'proper city' dispose their waste. So the dwellers make a living there. Still, this setting has been done in Septerra Core.
---Tentative answer: The footprint of the juggernauts are too big, so once you choose to live/work there, it's impractical to live/work outside of the area. AND (this is important), there's a valuable resource in the area that the dwellers can make a living on that even with frequent destructions. Growing and distilling Rare drugs (eg: the swampland around ancient Venice make black lottos), runaway slaves (if it's a slavery society).