Date:         Tue, 6 Aug 1996 16:14:30 -0500
Subject:      FILL: fwd: INT: GUIDELINES

Subject: INT: GUIDELINES

    This is a conglomeration of Chris', BT's, and Raini's suggestions.
Among other things, I removed the provision for a centralized list and
any contacts.  I don't think a list is feasible, although it might be
a good idea.  Plus, WRITERS is too dynamic to depend on anyone to
serve as a contact.  I changed EXCLUSIVE to RESERVED, and emphasized
the fact that other members may use RESERVED characters, but they
cannot change them.

Above all, participating in interactive stories requires civility and
respect for the other members of WRITERS.

DEFINITIONS:

Int. Zone - A setting which may be used for writing interactive
stories, such as Dysmal Keep, and Strawberry's Bed & Breakfast.  SPT
(Sweating Pig Tavern) and The Resort are terrific zones to drop into
quickly and have some fun without worrying about plots-in-progress or
reserved characters (definedbelow).

Int. Story - A story which may be told by several members of WRITERS
and which is made up of:
     Plot     -  The general conflict of the story;
     Sub-plot - Additional conflicts which may or may not be important to
                the main story plot;

Reserved Characters - Characters which are created by a member for
exclusive use in a plot or sub-plot, and which should never be changed
or killed by other members (in any interactive story or zone - since
characters often cross from one IZ to another).

Shared Characters - Characters created as supporting entities in a
plot or sub-plot, and which may be used by anyone else participating
in an interactive story.

BASIC GUIDELINES:

        1. If you want into an interactive story, write yourself into
it.  It is STRONGLY suggested that you read the posts for a while
before you jump in.

        2. Respect the mood of the interactive zone.  They were created
to help the participants experiment with specific genres.  For
example, Dysmal Keep is for experimenting with fantasy, dark fantasy,
and horror, while Strawberry's Bed & Breakfast was created for mystery
and detective stories.
	If you are not happy with the mood of a certain zone, there
may be another zone more to your liking.  Or, you may create a new
zone, or write without a zone.  You will simply have to do more work
at the beginning creating background).

        3. Respect the plots and subplots which already exist in the
zones.  Only resolve those which you, yourself, create.
        For example, if someone creates a plot about a man who is
chasing a killer, do not catch the killer yourself.  But, if you have
a sub-plot where your protaganist is shot by the killer, you can have
your protaganist also chase the killer in a sub-plot, and resolve that
sub-plot in some way which does not hurt the plot started by the other
member.
        You may also become a co-conspirator with the member who
started the plot.  In this case, you should discuss the story with
that member PRIVATELY, and ALWAYS DEFER TO THAT MEMBER'S decisions
when there's a conflict of ideas.

        4. While in the story, respect reserved characters.  You may
use them in your posts, but you should try to be true to their
personalities, and you should always restore them to the same place
and condition they were in at the start of your post when you end the
post.
        With adoption of these guidelines, all current writers of
stories in interactive zones should declare which of their characters
are reserve so there will be no confusion on this in the future.  If
more than one person declares the same character as reserved, the one
who created the character will get to decide who may use it.
        You reserve characters by listing them at the beginning of
your posts in which you use the characters.  If, for example, you were
sending a post and used Beast and Kolban,you would write:
            RESERVED:       BEAST KOLBAN 
at the top of your post.  Then, from that point on, Beast and Kolban
would be reserved to you. Only you would be able to permanantly alter
or kill them.
        They would remain your reserved characters until you wrote a
post using them and DIDN'T declare them as reserved.
        If you use someone else's reserved character in your post, you
would do their owner the courtesy of naming it as his/her reserved
character.
        So, if you had a post with Beast, Kolban, Raini and Yce, you
would write:
            RESERVED:       BEAST
                            KOLBAN
                            YCE       (KAT)
                            RAINI     (RAINI) 
at the top of the post.
            SHARED CHARACTERS: You may do what you will with shared
characters, including killing or changing them.  You may also make a
shared character one of your reserved characters.

        5.  Because more than one interactive story may be going on at
the same time in the same interactive zone, you should name your story
and refer to it in the subject, along with the zone.  So, if I had a
story about Morlock in Dysmal Keep, the subject could be:
            INT: DK - Morlock, or
            INT: DK, Morlock, or
            INT: Morlock (DK).

        6.  The penalty for not obeying these rules is that your post
may be ignored.  For example, if you write "Beast dies.", and Beast is
the exclusive character of Chris Vaughan, he will not die (in the
story).

The bottom line is, some people have real ideas for story-lines which
they want to explore, but they're constantly frustrated when someone
writes in a quick and easy solution to their conflict.  Are the
interactive stories a workshop for genre writing, as some would like
them to be, or are they just another form of filler; another way for
writers to write without actually having to write?

I want to point out that if we do adopt these guidelines, they will
not be etched in stone (hence the name, "guidelines").  We can always
amend them in the future.

This has been a message from:

Chris Vaughan: space.cowboy@worldnet.att.net