Post by Beelzebibble on Jan 1, 2010 12:15:59 GMT -5
Oh man you guys. Here we go. Yes, I couldn’t miss the possibility of letting Ishkabibble Scenes One to Three be the first RP topics of the decade. So, after that little prelude with Paolo, Ishkabibble is now officially underway.
I receive thousands of PMs daily. Here are some of the most popular questions people have been sending in about this strange and wonderful thing called Ishkabibble:
Q. What the hell brought this about?
A. Some months ago, Lee pitched a very interesting plan for an upcoming RP of his. I don’t know who else he’s told about it, so I’ll try not to give away any plot details (not like I know much more than the premise, anyway). But the setup he described will involve four simultaneous RPs in individual threads, tracing the concurrent movements of four separate groups of characters who will ultimately converge on a single location and wrap up the story in a single topic. I was struck by what a clever and elegant way this was to string together a long-form plot with a significantly larger-than-average cast, while avoiding the jarring cutaways that would have muddled the story up if he’d tried to contain all four threads within one topic from the start.
And then came Baccano!. And upon revisiting this RP idea, a brighter and better man for having let Baccano! into my life, I hit on a concept of my own, a means of presenting an RP that would be even cleverer and far less elegant than Lee’s. Rather than having each topic follow one subgroup of characters through their whole part in the story, I thought, why not let each topic represent a single scene? Mixing and matching participants from out of the larger pool of characters, each topic would present one fragment of the overall story, in which each character has a simple, short-term objective. Each scene would ideally only take up about a page’s worth of posts or less. Put all the scenes together, and the RP would be complete.
Oh yeah. And also because of watching Baccano!, I decided the scenes should be presented… out of chronological order.
Q. Out of chronological… Are you kidding me.
A. I am not kidding you. That’s the plan.
Q. What makes you think you can pull that off?
A. Easy – okay, not easy, but simple – okay not simple but workable: At the beginning of each new topic, the participants in that scene will be given PMs helping them to understand where they are at that point story-wise, what they’re trying to accomplish, and how they might best go about doing it.
Q. Excuse me you are going to TELL MY CHARACTER WHAT TO DO??
A. Well kind of! To some degree. But really it’ll more be things that your character should avoid doing, so as not to derail the plot. There’ll be suggestions for things they could do, but most of those will be minor, simply intended to add another layer of meaning to the story if you want. As far as the bigger actions, for the most part those are things you and I already talked about this summer.
Think of the PMs like stage directions. Long as people don’t mind working within those parameters, we can get this whole thing off with nary a plot hiccup.
Q. I am beginning to regret signing on for this project.
A. That’s not a question. But trust me, man, it’s going to be so worth it.
Q. It better be.
A. Oh my god dude it will.
Q. Hi! I am a different guy from the guy who was asking the previous questions, I guess, somehow. Basically I’m someone who had no idea all this was going down but now I’m interested ‘cuz it seems pretty cool. Can I join?
A. Ohhh, shit, I’m sorry. I have to put this in important-like text: Ishkabibble is STRICTLY INVITATION-ONLY. If I didn’t approach you this summer about being part of it, I can’t allow you to enter. Likewise, for people who are participating, the only characters you can use are the ones you signed on this summer.[/color]
It sucks, but you see why that has to be, because in a story that’s broken up and presented out of order, things will get seriously messed up if there are characters popping in and out who weren’t part of the plan to begin with. So the only people who can post in Ish topics are Blood, Bulbs, Choobs, Kuro, Lee, Prime, Qzumaki and SV (and me), and the only characters they can use are… well, I won’t give the full cast away.
I’m really sorry to the RPers whom I never even asked about joining, but the number of characters in this story already borders on obscene, so a line had to be drawn. If, after all of this is over, any of you who enjoyed reading it decide you might be interested in taking part in a similar project in the future, let me know.
Q. Are you saying there’s going to be a sequel?
A. Like in the far, far future.
Q. You know (since I have suddenly become the original question guy again, somehow, I guess), I am skeptical of what you just said because I seem to recall you telling me Ishkabibble was in the far, far future when you PMed me this summer and it hasn’t been that long. What are you, taking over RP now?
A. Mmmmaybe.
Q. Whatever. Let’s get back to the present. This “topic as scene” thing. How many scenes are there going to be altogether?
A. Counting Scene Zero… twenty-three.
Q. HOLY BALLS POHATU.
A. Okay—
Q. POHATU. BALLS WITHIN BALLS. CONCENTRIC BALLS.
A. Okay bear with me! It’s not as though all twenty-three of those topics are going up at once. You see how there are only the first three scenes up right now? Those three scenes are going to run to their completion before the next three scenes go up. Then those three scenes will finish before the next three. And so on. Seven batches of three scenes each, plus Scene Zero the prologue and Scene Twenty-Two the finale.
Q. Oh, I get it! Kind of like episodes of a TV show.
A. Now you’re catching on. A lot like episodes of a TV show. If you were to think of most RPs as being like movies, Ishkabibble would be a televised mini-series. (Or a regular series in the UK, where a season is like six episodes. You know.)
Setting the rule that all three topics in an episode have to conclude before the next episode begins will hopefully mean participants and readers actually have enough time to process what’s happening and not get too bewildered by all the jumping around. And remember, these topics are going to be short. As I said, most can be resolved in a page or less. If everyone keeps up their participation, we ought to be able to knock down one episode every couple of weeks.
Q. Still, though. Twenty-three topics. Can’t get past that part. Sort of going to clutter ORP, don’t you think?
A. Yeah, I thought so too. Which is why, on Lee’s approval, I’ve created an additional sub-board in the Writing Archive specifically for Ishkabibble topics. You can see Scene Zero’s already there. Once an episode finishes, the three topics will be whisked straight over to that board, where they won’t get in anyone’s way. I did plan for other RPs to be healthy and active during Ishkabibble’s run, honest.
Q. All right, I like what I’m hearing. This whole Ishkabibble thing might not blow too many chunks after all.
A. I sure hope it doesn’t.
Q. But Pohatu, that doesn’t change the fact that this is by far the most ludicrously overambitious endeavor I’ve heard about in all my RPin’ days. You’re not about to explode from the amount of work you’ve put into this, are you?
A. Ha ha! Ha! Ha! Of course not!
For convenience, this list will contain links to all the Ishkabibble topics. Watch this space for titles of upcoming scenes to make an early appearance as current topics end.
I receive thousands of PMs daily. Here are some of the most popular questions people have been sending in about this strange and wonderful thing called Ishkabibble:
Q. What the hell brought this about?
A. Some months ago, Lee pitched a very interesting plan for an upcoming RP of his. I don’t know who else he’s told about it, so I’ll try not to give away any plot details (not like I know much more than the premise, anyway). But the setup he described will involve four simultaneous RPs in individual threads, tracing the concurrent movements of four separate groups of characters who will ultimately converge on a single location and wrap up the story in a single topic. I was struck by what a clever and elegant way this was to string together a long-form plot with a significantly larger-than-average cast, while avoiding the jarring cutaways that would have muddled the story up if he’d tried to contain all four threads within one topic from the start.
And then came Baccano!. And upon revisiting this RP idea, a brighter and better man for having let Baccano! into my life, I hit on a concept of my own, a means of presenting an RP that would be even cleverer and far less elegant than Lee’s. Rather than having each topic follow one subgroup of characters through their whole part in the story, I thought, why not let each topic represent a single scene? Mixing and matching participants from out of the larger pool of characters, each topic would present one fragment of the overall story, in which each character has a simple, short-term objective. Each scene would ideally only take up about a page’s worth of posts or less. Put all the scenes together, and the RP would be complete.
Oh yeah. And also because of watching Baccano!, I decided the scenes should be presented… out of chronological order.
Q. Out of chronological… Are you kidding me.
A. I am not kidding you. That’s the plan.
Q. What makes you think you can pull that off?
A. Easy – okay, not easy, but simple – okay not simple but workable: At the beginning of each new topic, the participants in that scene will be given PMs helping them to understand where they are at that point story-wise, what they’re trying to accomplish, and how they might best go about doing it.
Q. Excuse me you are going to TELL MY CHARACTER WHAT TO DO??
A. Well kind of! To some degree. But really it’ll more be things that your character should avoid doing, so as not to derail the plot. There’ll be suggestions for things they could do, but most of those will be minor, simply intended to add another layer of meaning to the story if you want. As far as the bigger actions, for the most part those are things you and I already talked about this summer.
Think of the PMs like stage directions. Long as people don’t mind working within those parameters, we can get this whole thing off with nary a plot hiccup.
Q. I am beginning to regret signing on for this project.
A. That’s not a question. But trust me, man, it’s going to be so worth it.
Q. It better be.
A. Oh my god dude it will.
Q. Hi! I am a different guy from the guy who was asking the previous questions, I guess, somehow. Basically I’m someone who had no idea all this was going down but now I’m interested ‘cuz it seems pretty cool. Can I join?
A. Ohhh, shit, I’m sorry. I have to put this in important-like text: Ishkabibble is STRICTLY INVITATION-ONLY. If I didn’t approach you this summer about being part of it, I can’t allow you to enter. Likewise, for people who are participating, the only characters you can use are the ones you signed on this summer.[/color]
It sucks, but you see why that has to be, because in a story that’s broken up and presented out of order, things will get seriously messed up if there are characters popping in and out who weren’t part of the plan to begin with. So the only people who can post in Ish topics are Blood, Bulbs, Choobs, Kuro, Lee, Prime, Qzumaki and SV (and me), and the only characters they can use are… well, I won’t give the full cast away.
I’m really sorry to the RPers whom I never even asked about joining, but the number of characters in this story already borders on obscene, so a line had to be drawn. If, after all of this is over, any of you who enjoyed reading it decide you might be interested in taking part in a similar project in the future, let me know.
Q. Are you saying there’s going to be a sequel?
A. Like in the far, far future.
Q. You know (since I have suddenly become the original question guy again, somehow, I guess), I am skeptical of what you just said because I seem to recall you telling me Ishkabibble was in the far, far future when you PMed me this summer and it hasn’t been that long. What are you, taking over RP now?
A. Mmmmaybe.
Q. Whatever. Let’s get back to the present. This “topic as scene” thing. How many scenes are there going to be altogether?
A. Counting Scene Zero… twenty-three.
Q. HOLY BALLS POHATU.
A. Okay—
Q. POHATU. BALLS WITHIN BALLS. CONCENTRIC BALLS.
A. Okay bear with me! It’s not as though all twenty-three of those topics are going up at once. You see how there are only the first three scenes up right now? Those three scenes are going to run to their completion before the next three scenes go up. Then those three scenes will finish before the next three. And so on. Seven batches of three scenes each, plus Scene Zero the prologue and Scene Twenty-Two the finale.
Q. Oh, I get it! Kind of like episodes of a TV show.
A. Now you’re catching on. A lot like episodes of a TV show. If you were to think of most RPs as being like movies, Ishkabibble would be a televised mini-series. (Or a regular series in the UK, where a season is like six episodes. You know.)
Setting the rule that all three topics in an episode have to conclude before the next episode begins will hopefully mean participants and readers actually have enough time to process what’s happening and not get too bewildered by all the jumping around. And remember, these topics are going to be short. As I said, most can be resolved in a page or less. If everyone keeps up their participation, we ought to be able to knock down one episode every couple of weeks.
Q. Still, though. Twenty-three topics. Can’t get past that part. Sort of going to clutter ORP, don’t you think?
A. Yeah, I thought so too. Which is why, on Lee’s approval, I’ve created an additional sub-board in the Writing Archive specifically for Ishkabibble topics. You can see Scene Zero’s already there. Once an episode finishes, the three topics will be whisked straight over to that board, where they won’t get in anyone’s way. I did plan for other RPs to be healthy and active during Ishkabibble’s run, honest.
Q. All right, I like what I’m hearing. This whole Ishkabibble thing might not blow too many chunks after all.
A. I sure hope it doesn’t.
Q. But Pohatu, that doesn’t change the fact that this is by far the most ludicrously overambitious endeavor I’ve heard about in all my RPin’ days. You’re not about to explode from the amount of work you’ve put into this, are you?
A. Ha ha! Ha! Ha! Of course not!
For convenience, this list will contain links to all the Ishkabibble topics. Watch this space for titles of upcoming scenes to make an early appearance as current topics end.
- Ishkabibble Scene Zero: Paolo Undertakes Preparations to Look the Part of a Made Man
- Ishkabibble Scene One: The False Assumptions which Instigated the Shakedown are Soon Dispelled
- Ishkabibble Scene Two: Mandelbrot Considers It Poor Form to Leave Certain Threads Dangling
- Ishkabibble Scene Three: Blaise Euler Demonstrates Surprising Compassion and is Subsequently Held at Knifepoint
- Ishkabibble Scene Four: Once Again Rhys Finds Himself Somewhat Awkwardly in the Midst of Older Acquaintances
- Ishkabibble Scene Five: Joseph and Tsubota's Vehicular Accident Occurs Five Minutes Off from Being Convenient
- Ishkabibble Scene Six: Auguste Tylor is the First Character to Correctly Interpret the Rumor
- Ishkabibble Scene Seven: Massimo Giarrettiera Considers the Counterfeiter as a Lucrative Business Prospect
- Ishkabibble Scene Eight: Natalie Happens Upon an Easy Answer to her Puzzlement Regarding the Dead Body
- Ishkabibble Scene Nine: The Hotel Staff will Ultimately be Spared the Trouble of Cleaning Up the Mess in Room 126
- Ishkabibble Scene Ten: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Eleven: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Twelve: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Thirteen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Fourteen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Fifteen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Sixteen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Seventeen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Eighteen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Nineteen: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Twenty: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Twenty-one: ?
- Ishkabibble Scene Twenty-two: ?