The Red Honey Wars: OOC Discussion

Fallen London
1

Hey everyone!

This is the general public chat thread for the upcoming RP, The Red Honey Wars, which aims to create an alternative epilogue to the exceptional story Steeped In Honey. (Although knowledge of Steeped In Honey is not required to join Red Honey Wars or to enjoy reading it! We’re keeping the story general.)

Before we start, let me just put down a few points to consider (borrowed and amended from the excellent RP, In Red, Underlined):

  • Keep posts for this RP teen-rated. (No explicit, gratuitous, or lurid depictions of sex, violence, or torture. No torture porn.) Let’s try to emulate the writers of Fallen London: where subtlety can be even more visceral than explicit descriptions, and where we can trust in the creative imaginations of our readers to run with the setups that we give them.[/li][li]No sexual assault.[/li][li]Be sure to handle homophobia/transphobia/racism very carefully.[/li][li]Do not make pleas to historical accuracy (talk to the tentacle).[/li][li]Please keep this a safe space for everyone of all races, genders, orientations, etc. In short, let’s all be kind to each other and play nice.[/li][li]Please be polite and respectful in the Google docs, and try not to edit other people’s stuff. Comments are a great resource here.[/li][li]If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me.

I will also be keeping an up-to-date list of documents, discussion channels, and the like below as they are created:

  • The Red Honey Wars Story Thread - (Coming eventually…)[/li][li]The Red Honey Wars Directory (Google Docs) - Start here to find links to all of our internal Google docs! (reference docs, the script, player characters, FAQs, etc.)[/li][li]#red_honey_wars on Discord. (Players should PM me for the link!)

So welcome!! I am looking forward to what we create together!

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edited by Six Handed Merchant on 3/19/2018

2

So to start us off, I have two big questions for the players in this RP:

1. How do we want to run this RP? As a typical RPG (with a GM and players)? Or as a group collaborative fiction without a central person dictating the story?
Since most of the players have a pretty full schedule already, I figured keeping it less structured than your typical GM-led RPG would be easier, but I’ve never run an RP before and would love to get feedback on this idea!

2. Are you okay with this RP creating an Alternative Timeline for Fallen London? And how much divergence are you comfortable with?
The Red Honey Wars RP, will in all likelihood, change things in Fallen London canon. At the very least, the Gimlet-Eyed Proprietor and Mnemosyne’s will still exist in Fallen London, but not at the end of this RP. This means that future RPs will likely ignore the events that take place in this story. And if the Red Honey trade gets severely disrupted, or major characters in the trade get taken down, then this RP will diverge from canon even further. Also consider that your characters may grow and develop due to the events of this RP, but you may not be able to reference those events in future RPs. Are people okay with this kind of fragmentation? Or should we limit it (ex. to only Mnemosyne’s)?

Feel free to discuss below, as I am curious as to what you all think!

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edited by Six Handed Merchant on 1/29/2018

3

  1. I would like if it was a group collaborative fiction, instead of something with a GM structure. I think it gives the story more cohesion & a higher quality when everyone is consulting everyone else on how the story is going to go, and keeps that feedback going.

  2. I’m completely fine with this, most RPs create divergent timelines that no one really references anyways. I don’t think it’s a huge issue

4

  1. I’d prefer collabrative fiction. I think given the medium that works best.

  2. I am fairly okay with this. Some deviations have to happen for stories. Depends on how much i guess.

5

  1. Each has its advantages. For something like this, I think that the main advantage of having a GM is having a single person who can judge disputes, keep things moving, and keep track of the big picture. IMO if one person does all that, then that person is the GM, regardless of how storytelling responsibilities are shared; if no one is doing it, then the group may drift and fade away.

  2. I think this is inevitable and I’m fine with it, so long as it doesn’t go so far as to be unrecognizably different from the main FL world.

My own question: what sort of issues should we be discussing here in the forums, and what should we continue to discuss in the doc?

6

How about this? Feel free to use the forum thread to discuss anything that you think should be brought in front of the whole group, or to spotlight new ideas. But if you have specific topic of conversation that can be spun off, do it in the docs? Does that sound good? (We can also reassess as new communication tools come online, like once we have a Discord group set up.)

And in case anyone wants to test it out first, I made a General Discussion Google doc and copied over all of our existing general discussion threads from the Reference doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-J4_PZ0ZMQX4NR5altS967V1MoHAe49REcn-I-65hvI/edit

If people like this, then I will keep the general discussion document and do my best to keep it clean (keep the TOC working, move settled threads to the bottom, etc.). Otherwise I will be happy to scrap it.

And as far as having a group GM, I am happy to take on the role (especially since I instigated this whole thing). The only potential issue is that I have never done anything like this before, so I could use all the advice and feedback you can give me. To that end, I’ve added a &quotGM Feedback&quot topic in the General Discussion document.

And if this is too structured/overbuilt, please let me know that as well! :)

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7

This is awesome, Six! I’m glad you’re enjoying IRU, and I see some friends here! Your idea sounds intriguing. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

8

I just want to let everyone know that I will be traveling out of the country from around February 19th to March 11th, and during that time I will have little to no access to Internet.

However, once I get back I have some items that I plan to complete for the Red Honey Wars RP:

  • I will be getting back a week before the action date of March 18th on the Red Honey Wars Reference Document. At that time I hope to work with everyone to translate ideas from the Reference into The Script (see below)[/li][li]Either now or shortly after I get back, I plan to start The Script for the Red Honey Wars. This will be a place for all players to coordinate their scenes with the overarching plot and progression that they want to see for Red Honey Wars. My hope is that players can use The Script as a launching point for splitting off and collaborating on the scenes that they plan to write.[/li][li]If anyone wants to get a Discord channel going for the Red Honey Wars RP, that would be great! Otherwise I will work to start one once I get back.

Thats it for now. Feel free to add your remaining contributions to all the documents while I am gone, and I will see you all when I get back! This is the last big trip I have this year, so once I am back I hope to be more readily available for this RP.

I am looking forward to what we will write together!

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edited by Six Handed Merchant on 2/16/2018

9

I’m back now, but still getting caught up on everything FL related. Once I’m caught up I will post the latest for the Red Honey Wars here.

10

How do people feel about meeting this weekend on Discord to plan next steps for the Red Honey Wars RP?

I will be on the #red_honey_wars channel on Discord this weekend, Saturday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day!) from 1:30PM to 4PM Pacific Time.


I will also be on our Google Docs at the same time, helping to put together a skeleton document / script for the RP.

I hope to use this as an opportunity to answer questions as a group, and get some ideas for the next step the RP should take. But since people’s schedules are still super-busy, so there is no requirement to be on this weekend. Nothing will be set in stone. Anything that gets decided upon will be put in the Google Docs after, and discussion can continue there if need be.

if you do not have access to the server, please PM me and I will send you a sign-up link.

And I hope to see you then!