Now Seeking members of the Council of Scribes

I hope it doesn't. I mean no disrespect to people submitting lore here, some of whom are probably fine writers, but I (we) paid money to the devs to write a compelling story and deep lore for us.

 

I was hoping by environment he meant the things outside the scripted story and lore baked into the game, things that still color your involvement with it. It comes into being by the mechanics that allow people to role play and do stuff in game. E.g. PaxLair already has a story behind what they do and how they fit in the world - they've named places in their town, set up events. People can tell a story with house decoration. I see the books as like these...

In other words, I agree this shouldn't change anything the devs do, or the main story arc. But with books or other mechanics, people will change the environment of the game. The best way to avoid that is single player. But even then if it's populated with some user-generated books? Not entirely. Also, there may be side quests in the single player that others with the tech expertise create. Don't have enough information to say what user-generated content will show up even in single player.

My original point is I don't know how important books will be, if they will just be decorations and collecibles (and not read), whether they would fit in with the main story and lore etc.

 

It may be worth a reminder here that all submissions have to be approved by Portalarium before anything is considered "official" lore and Richard and Tracy have no doubt fleshed out all the necessary lore required for their story. However, remember this is an entire world that needs to be filled in. A daunting task.

For those wishing to contribute to the lore of the world there are a couple things people need to remember. The council of scribes will only make sure that lore doesn't contradict what's already established and that all submissions must meet Richard's approval. So yes, you have the chance to add to the lore of New Britannia. No it will not change the story Richard and Tracy have come up with.

 

That's a bit different. I have absolutely no problem with player-written books about player-made content existing where it's relevant -- however, such publications seem more logical as in-game self-publications and not pre-release official publications. Player Towns probably won't be present in offline games, and I have no idea about single player MP.

Officially, yeah, I don't know either. Personally I hope this official book thing has no effect on the core game as released by Portalarium beyond the odd easter egg, otherwise...well, I already think this is a horribly grey copyright area they're messing in right now. I'll leave it at that. :/

 

Expectations need to be kept low. It's important to realize that making any real contribution to lore at this point is almost impossible. With so little of the story and world fleshed out, writing something that fits with what will eventually be developed by RG and Hickman is almost impossible. Archery in the dark. That's why I think "Tales from the Vale" is an exercise in writing things that won't be impacted by what's eventually released. We won't be writing histories of towns, biographies of main characters, significant world events. At least I don't think so or even feel that would be appropriate. Thus, it is lore only in a somewhat removed and very light form. If they become books in the game, they will be mere curiosities and collectibles. Not things that people read because they really want to flesh out their understanding of what is going on....

If you're interested, I was thinking about this when I wrote, "Mark's Tales of the Unremarkable, Number 8". It's a parody of the goofy kind of enthusiasm of fiction writers (myself implicated), the curiosities that make us want to write lore, the current lack of evidence we have, and the way fan fiction often wants to take the story in directions that those in charge, and other players find, well, kind of like a stink bomb.

 

For one thing.. Richard and Tracy have already developed much of the story for EP1. Richard has eluded to this many times. They're just not giving us a lot of detail. With all of the world NOT directly involved in the main plot.. there's a lot out there that can be filled in. If it gets by the lore keepers and Richard approves it.. that's far from "impossible".

Just because it's not part of the main plot does not mean it isn't lore. No one is asking for plot lines for EP1 and beyond. That doesn't make it insignificant. So I take exception to the notion that players can't make "any real contribution to lore".

 

So do you know whether the Vale is involved in the main story? Is it a plot free zone? According to the original description, our submissions are limited to the Vale at this point. No one has told us what we're free to fill in or not fill in. If I reference an NPC, place, it might contradict something - even just a simple side quest. So it's like I said, a shot in the dark. Plus whether a book series called Tales of the Vale becomes part of the lore or not is still a question in my mind.

Sorry, I tend to be a realist after being involved in the process for a while. But instead of taking exception, you should note that I've also contributed a ton already to this effort, and am happy to do so. I'm doing my best to be creative and take that shot in the dark. I will still have no expectations that it will go anywhere but the forum.

 

At this point, we don't know if the Vale is involved in the main story I'm sure if anything a player writes contradicts established lore, Richard (who does have final approval over everything written) will let us know. So I would say, as long as your work makes reference to known people, places, events, etc. in the Vale, and doesn't result in alterations to reality (i.e., you can't buy Fire Lotus Tavern and rename it "Joe's Bar & Grill", or broker a peace treaty between elves and humans, or become the mayor of Kingsport, etc.), you're probably OK.

 

That's what I'm hoping for too but I'm keeping my expectations low. It's easy to step on something when you're in the dark... ok I'm running that analogy into the ground! Anyway, for me it's all about having fun with the process and whatever anyone does with it or doesn't do with it is fine with me.

 

That's all well and good and I wouldn't want people to think anything they write is a guarantee.. but you're telling people it's "nearly impossible" which is a very discouraging comment to make. I also consider myself something of a realist and that's just a tad extreme. Consider everywhere you might go with creative writing and that Richard and Tracy probably didn't go too far beyond what was necessary to do their story. That leaves a LOT of room to be filled in.

It may be a shot in the dark.. but you only have to miss what's already there and if by some chance you hit something the council will work with you.

So I would advise authors to not worry too much about it and just have fun.

 

If my hyperbole actually discouraged anyone from writing, I beg for mercy and one last chance to turn my life around. I know I've made a complete mess of things. Obviously my intentions were unintentionally diabolical. Now that the walls of oppression have been torn down by the blowing of the sacred horn, let us all rush in to exercise our new found literary freedom!

Yes, let's just have fun!

 

er...

does this mean that the scribes of novia is now defunct?

 

Dang good question cause that seems like a weirdly worded answer.

https://shroudoftheavatar.com/forum...pensated-for-writing.13764/page-5#post-233051

@Chaox: Can you clarify this? Cause it sounds like now "player written fiction" is excluded from writing core game content with a "council of scribes" as editors?

Especially since that is the content we were talking about, the content from THIS group, not from/for players later using ingame methods to distribute their own content not vetted through the "council"

 

For fairness sake, I am hoping that this new standard of eliminating non-compensated solicited/sanctioned player contributions gets applied equally to this and other areas. There are other examples.

 

As opposed to what? How the entire project started i.e. on the principles of crowd funded and crowd sourced?

How is this something new? That is what I failed to understand in the entire other conversation.

 

Everyone I think by now understands your perspective. If you want to post somewhere where it was stated that non-compensated player contributions would not be part of the process, then do it. This is a new situation.

I can not think of another instance where something solicited/sanctioned without compensation (Council of Scribes is not the only one) was subsequently revoked. Correct me if there is one. If this is a new decision it needs to be applied equally.

 

Hail everyone.

Winfield here again, the Grand Master of the Lore Council.

We are pausing our Lore Council work for 7 to 10 days to modify our strategy as a player-run Lore Council. We have really good people on the Council helping players write good player-fiction and have done a great job. Our desire to work with authors is unchanged. We will come out with more information soon.

 

I honestly saw this comming when someone asks to be paid then talks about legal problems things will stall. I really wish we could just do things for fun(if we want too) and leave getting something out of it...out of it.


I guess they are partly to blame because they set the precident to take in art from other areas and pay for them...however I didn't nor do I want anything for what I have written.

 

The irony here is that no one's stopped anyone from writing for fun and getting nothing out of it.

 

I for one will continue, and I'm sure others will as well.

Please be sympathetic to the perspective of others and realize that the one thing we all want is to participate in the process. You could post your ideas on another forum, but you do so here because you want them to interact with Portalarium and the game in some way. If you want to donate your advice on how they should run as a business, fine. But you post it here hoping it will have an actual interaction with the company itself.

The small glimmer for those of us interested in story, lore, RP, etc was that we might get a little participation in the project, a little insight into what's going on in the new world they're creating.

We all come at things from different perspectives here, it might be helpful to remember at this point.