Character Development Thread--Discussion

Dream was my favorite, mostly since the dream setting offered a very easy way to peek into a character's subconscious. Naturally quiet or private characters, and characters with stories driven by past traumas and personal problems are at a disadvantage in typical CDTs. In the vast majority of interaction scenes, it's not going to be logical for such characters to divulge things like that to other CDT characters. Dream allowed the writer to just make representations of things like that appear in physical form, so that other people's characters could breach the subject.

Dig Site had some cool things going on before the thread got too toxic. I also wouldn't mind going back to that. Hell, I wouldn't mind going back four years to Outpost. Or even Character Bar, the first ever CDT (which turned out to be located in Rapture, of all places). I'm just really into going back and righting some wrongs. I've been trying to tell stories for over a decade, but I never wrote a word of prose until the CDTs. Naturally, there's a lot of Old Shame and missed opportunities that I didn't even realize I missed until after I grew some more as a writer.

Yeah, part of me would rather revisit thread concepts that didn't really work out the first time than try to replicate the success of ones that did. Particularly since, as has already been pointed out, that didn't go so well with Mountain Resort.

So ones that missed their potential as opposed to being unworkable?

Great, now I'm even more confused.

With what, exactly?

Argh, I really loved Dream but revisiting a "failed" thread is also a great idea. As well as trying out all the other threads I wasn't around for. If you guys think it would be helpful, I could set up a Google Form where we could vote for what setting to revisit. There are a lot of possibilities so we should probably have run-off votes as well.

Edit: I'm also open to new thread ideas, I'm just excited about a revisit because it sounds like fun to me and I also have no other ideas.

edited 15th Oct '15 1:44:13 PM by SnowyFoxes

Go for it. I think something like this would help.

Thread reboot: It sounds like an awesome idea, but I'm personally not for using exact characters again, is that's still only part of the plan. Drama free, non-railroaded Heist also sounds fun.

Only if there's an Ice Golem.

Well, here we go!

The poll includes "I want a new setting instead" as an option, as well as "I'm fine with either" for indecisive folk like myself. I only listed main series threads because we're looking to replace Capital, but for anyone who wants to return to the one-casual-one-main system there is an "Other" option where you can write in your own choice.

... Now that I'm looking at the "please select up to five settings" bit I can't actually recall what my logic behind it was. Should we just give people one vote? Three? I dunno.

Hopefully I haven't made any egregious errors, but if I have, let me know and I'll get right to fixing them. After I get some sleep, that is. As much as I'd like to talk myself into thinking that two hours of sleep + black coffee = a good night's sleep, my mind is moving about three times as fast as usual and goddamn my fingers are tingly. Good night. Or afternoon. Same difference when I close the curtains.

Aaaand voted. ;D

Took the poll (I think; I'm on my phone and I'm not entirely sure it went through).

I voted for Castle, Express, and Dream. I'd also be fine with a completely new setting and I'm also fine with most of the other options (save Dig Site, which I found uninteresting back then and I still find it uninteresting now).

Voted for Carnival, Heist, Dream, Snowflake^note Had to select "Other" because Christmas is around the corner for me, and Titanic for amusing reasons that would be behind my character's presence.

edited 15th Oct '15 3:30:58 PM by TroPartner

Voted for Outpost, Heist, and Express, but I'd be cool with a new setting, too.

@Ryuhza: everything, how do I jump in? Do I jump in now that there's going to be a reboot? How dose my character interact with others?

edited 15th Oct '15 3:45:48 PM by AustinHinton

A) However it suits you. Plane, Train, Automobile, Dimensional Warp, Hole from China, They-Were-There-The-Whole-Time, etc.

B) If you're interested in Frontier, then yes. That one is going to be around for the foreseeable future. Maybe Capital too, though that we're even in talks to start a new thread probably means that it's days are numbered.

C) However it suits you. We are writers, we write in excuses for characters to do whatever. It could just be that your character thinks that another character looks interesting, so they strike up a conversation. It could be that they need something. It could be that they just fell out of the sky and landed on top of someone else.

Get the idea? The world's your oyster. The written word is also your oyster. I hope you like oysters.

edited 15th Oct '15 3:53:16 PM by Ryuhza

@Night: In your latest post, are you referring to Christopher's APC?

I'm going to note now, since it was mentioned, that I'd be firmly against revisiting the Titanic concept. In retrospect it was an early warning sign of QQQQQ's Sci Fi Ghetto thing, and I don't see how it really does anything for most characters.

I personally have no intentions of ending Capital before it's time. I just thought it would be worth raising the topic now, since there hadn't been any discussion yet.

edited 15th Oct '15 4:28:22 PM by nrjxll

Yeah, I'm not sure what the appeal of a setting where only muggle characters are allowed is, especially since most of our works are either sci-fi or fantasy.

Yeah. My characters took it for something from their own universe, briefly.

edited 15th Oct '15 4:28:45 PM by Night

Just voted, for Heist, Express, Dream, Dig Site, and Outpost, and then added in the Other box that, no really, I'm cool with whatever thread people want to reboot.

I should add that if anyone votes for Castle- and not many people who are here today participated in that -it was kinda-sorta like a setting thread on paper. (And I'm pretty sure a good number of you weren't around for Ren Island, either.) At the time, its main thing was that it was Vinicio Acquati's castle home, but without Vince himself. Castle Boreas in Character Archipelago was essentially a smaller-scaled version of Character Castle. I feel like if we tried to reboot Castle, we'd either get Setting Thread Part 2 with the issue of being overly dependent on me, or we'd get a reskin of Character Mansion. Just throwing it out there that if we do try it, I'm going to be pretty busy in the coming year- unless someone else has a castle setting they want to use and a lot of time on their hands -and it'll need a lot of prepwork either way.

As for the thought behind Titanic, from what I remember it was about forcing specfic writers to focus more on character than combat, magic, or other speculative stuff because Q felt that some of us were falling into the scifi/fantasy trap of bad characters. I was certainly one of those people writing flat characters who were propped up on entirely cosmetic weirdness, but because I was new to writing and had to learn how to write good characters, not just because I was writing fantasy. And even though I feel pretty good about my ability to write actually good characters who just happen to be fantastical, I doubt I would get much out of it today, mostly because I figured out how to intertwine the fantasy with a lot of my characters such that something would actually be lost if you tried to make them human.

edited 15th Oct '15 5:00:20 PM by CrystalGlacia

Just did my voting.

Also, I may get something out in Froniter in two or three days.

edited 16th Oct '15 1:20:06 AM by DarkbloodCarnagefang

Ok, I think I'm getting the idea. I will start later. See you then.

I'm jumping on the "revisit old setting" bandwagon. Thing is, I haven't been here too long :P I voted for the interesting-sounding ones to me.

Still unsure about tomorrow. I might be able to post on my phone during the road trip, though it's a pain in the ass. I might write one long hand and type it up later. I might not even post at all if I'm tired enough.

Going by nrjxll's post, I assume this Q guy brings up...bad memories?

edited 15th Oct '15 6:19:59 PM by TroPartner