Writting in other settings

[Letho]

So yeah, this is something that's been nagging at me for a while and I wanted to see where everybody else stands. We all like Althanas and its fantasy-esque setting, and we like writing stories in such a setting. But I've been wondering how many people here has interest in writing stories in other settings: modern, futuristic, you name it. Do you ever get an urge to write something else, or come up with a story that doesn't fit Althanas, or do you mostly focus on the current setting? I ask this mostly because while we are all more or less creative people, I seldom see people posting something in the Creative Endeavors. Is it the EXP that lures some away from writing stories that don't fit Althanas, or just the inability to get a judgment for such a piece of writing, or is it just the lack of interest in different settings.

So yeah, please vote in the poll and post your opinion if possible, because I'm really interested in the results.

[Vigil]

I tried putting my own piece and spin on Althanas for awhile. Its occurred with different characters, some more subtle than others. But Liam was the first real vibrant taste of something other than fantasy that I had cooked up in awhile. The first thread I ever accomplished with Liam pretty much laid it out for me on whether it was worth it or not. My setting score was butchered and it contributed to an overall lack of commentary but a very centralized focus on how 'detached' I was from Althanas. Seriously. Admittedly, the story wasn't really that great because I had forced myself to seperate it into two parts, but the time I spent on it, the effort involved and finally deciding to just put a period on it and move on left me very bitter. The score didn't bother me, necessarily, but the commentary which just seemed to glaze over what I had probably spent more then a year constructing was like a slap in the face. The only thing that really seemed to put a silver lining to it was the abnormally large experience payout I received for it.

Over a year and a half, of probably my better work, I get a level out of it and told that the character I had approved here and the way I wrote didn't 'mesh' with the Althanas vibe. Probably just that judge, I suspect, but I definitely got the message that Catholicism, Irish and Victorian flavor aren't welcomed here.

EDIT: It might not always be that case, I guess. But I'd really recommend that if you want to try something 'outside the box', take what people tell you with a huge fucking grain of salt.

[Rayse Valentino]

You don't need to post in creative endeavors to have non-fantasy settings. Just take a trip into the planes.

[Duffy]

Catholicism is Earth...Victorian is Earth...you got a low setting score because you completely ignored it, that was your choice, and knowing the Rubric well, you gambled with it.

Althanas is presently a fixed setting environment. Instead of adapting your ideals to suit the world you role-play in, you chose to write something entirely pervasive of Earth's history and attempted to fit it, badly, into a fixed environment.

That was your choice, Vigil, and no fault of anyone else.

In an ideal world, this would be an open writing community, but, Althanas has always been a setting specific role-playing forum. There are ways to adapt ideas, and ways to integrate, but feeling victimised because you made no effort to fuse your writing, character, and style with the canvas provided was entirely your call.

I am, by all means, interested in other settings. However, I don't come to Althanas to sate that curiosity.

Why?

This is Althanas. It is not a website, it is a specific setting, I enjoy it, and I wish to continue in that vein. If I want futuristic, I go elsewhere. If I want poetry, I go to poet's corner. I'm all for diversification, by all means, but let's not kid ourselves - there's pandering to the masses, and then there's losing the point of Althanas to begin with.

[Celestus]

I mostly write in modern day for my own writings. I just finished my supernatural horror novel after seven years, so I need a change of pace really badly. I also like super hero writing and Pokemon, but it's hard to find a mature group for those.

[Vigil]

Catholicism is Earth...Victorian is Earth...you got a low setting score because you completely ignored it, that was your choice, and knowing the Rubric well, you gambled with it.

Actually, I didn't. The expressed purpose of that thread was an introductory thread, to introduce my character and begin interwining it with Althanas. If you had bothered to read it, you'd also notice how I played my unnatural setting in Radasanth. Not only did I do that, but I also tailored my ideas to the world I was having Liam go into. I realize this is going to turn into a fight really just over preference, but I find your accusation to be completely baseless. Liam, his cabal and everything in it interacted with the Althanian environment. I even made direct comparisons and alluded to what was happening by having a group of people from a different world and a different time period interacting with Coronians. They used it to their advantage and began to take over. And I managed to do this in great detail.

So, before you decide to give me a knee-jerk reaction for raking one of your fellow judges over the coals, I'd suggest giving your attacks a bit more consideration and do a bit more research next time. Adds to the venom and substance to it, if that's what you were going for. Instead, you're coming off pompous and lacking. Again.

Althanas is presently a fixed setting environment.

Really now? I'll admit, this is a fantasy setting, but Althanas has always been accepting of different styles and writers of all different stripes. However, there are numerous examples of people who create characters from earth (earthers, I think the term once was) and have been relatively successful with them. In The Name of Mudd is an example of this. The person who owns this site, your boss, has a character who uses berettas, something not really Althanian if we're going to use your definition. And a weapon that most of this population doesn't have access to without jumping through a series of hoops. Justification?

Althanas is fluid, not fixed. It always has been. Before your time, and would probably still be long after you hit the bricks.

Instead of adapting your ideals to suit the world you role-play in, you chose to write something entirely pervasive of Earth's history and attempted to fit it, badly, into a fixed environment.

I'm going to be rather nice in the way I put this, Duffy, more to your benefit then to mine. You have got to have some pretty big stones to be telling me anything I've written is bad, let alone pervasive in its origin. I admit what I chose was very difficult to fit into this kind of setting, but I managed to. And to be honest with you, I took you for many things, thick-headed being one of them, but being narrow-minded? Please. I think the time you've spent during Althanas' hibernation as its sole source of activity for a couple months is beginning to get to your head.

Oh, and.. a fluid environment, right?

That was your choice, Vigil, and no fault of anyone else.

Yes, you are right on this account. It was my choice to write in this manner. I also submitted this knowing the risks that what I was doing would be unappreciated by a judge who really didn't care for this on their website. But, what I hadn't expected was that a judge who held onto my thread for over two weeks in a period of Althanas' downtime merely glazed over something I spent more then a year writing. And once it was done, post commentary that was very, very light and offering little substance other than, 'This isn't Althanian. I'm docking you for it.'

To be honest with you, if I had been merely docked for it, I'd have been less angry. The fact that at the time of reading that judgment I was fairly certain the judge skimmed over it, cherry-picked things they didn't care for and used the fact I had used an unorthodox method for writing my thread as an umbrella for their criticism really pissed me off.

In an ideal world, this would be an open writing community, but, Althanas has always been a setting specific role-playing forum.
There are ways to adapt ideas, and ways to integrate, but feeling victimised because you made no effort to fuse your writing, character, and style with the canvas provided was entirely your call.

No effort? Duffy. In your time here, there have been very few things that you've ever said that have gotten under my skin, and this would have been, if I hadn't realized how baseless and wild your accusations are. As they usually are. I worked on this thread for a very long time and had it proofread by many people. I also made sure to incorporate my setting in a matter that it could be tailored and in further writing would eventually assimilate to Althanas. I may have finished only part of it, but I believe I am relatively successful in it. I apologize if it isn't quite your cup of tea, but I insist that the next time that you run to another person's defense, especially if its against somebody you so loathe, that you actually support your accusations then merely make them and hope to your God I have a stroke before I can pick them apart.

I'm disappointed, Duffy. Try harder.

This is Althanas. It is not a website, it is a specific setting, I enjoy it, and I wish to continue in that vein. If I want futuristic, I go elsewhere. If I want poetry, I go to poet's corner. I'm all for diversification, by all means, but let's not kid ourselves - there's pandering to the masses, and then there's losing the point of Althanas to begin with.

It is a website. And while you have spent a vast majority of your time establishing your mythos with a massive cast of characters, which is commendable by the way, it isn't your website. It has always had a fluid setting. For whatever reason. Maybe its because we've always had people from different walks of life with different styles of writing and Althanas has always welcomed people in favor of activity. Maybe most region writers were lazy (they weren't) and kept things open-ended so people can write things as they see fit. Either way, Althanas has appealed to different settings, different genres and fantasy has always been the standby for everyone else. Whether you like my style or what I managed to produce, I don't really care, but I'm not the first to have done this and I certainly won't be the last. But I'm sure by the time I'm done with it, I will be one of them who has done it in more detail and attempted to work a story in where an outsider goes into Althanas and begins to assimilate to it.

Wow, what an entirely lazy thing to do and with absolutely no effort, right?

[Sagequeen]

I come here, to Althanas, to write in a mostly persistent setting with other people. Since our setting is alike, I can pick up and write with anyone, anytime... and that's the point of what we do as RP'ers, is it not? We need common ground, literally.

If I want to write something outside of this world we have here, I do. I do no expect the rules to be bent or broken for me and my solo thread, and especially if it was presented inside an Althanas region, as a normal thread, with a request for light commentary. And I certainly wouldn't make or break my participation in a group of people based on one person's observations.

Now then, with that said, I think there should be an avenue for writers who want to branch out. I, as a judge, would not mind accommodating writers because, overall, it's about giving and receiving feedback to improve on either avenue. I think a single section would suffice where Outlands does not.


And as an aside, off topic:

Vigil, rake me over the proverbial coals as much as you please; it doesn't change anything. I simply abided by the standards that everyone else on this site is expected to uphold, hence the necessity of this thread.

If you had an issue with Born Under a Bad Star judgment, you really should have taken it up with the judgment staff then, but I'll take it up here and now, considering it was mine, and you requested light commentary. If you wanted something more in-depth for all your hard work, you should have requested full/full. And so you know, I did not merely skim over it, and that's why it took me a whole week, not two. Any mod is welcome to look at both your request and my turnaround time on it.

There is also no need to make petty assumptions or personal arguments/attacks here; this is a poll for peoples' opinions on whether or not they would like other settings, and I won't be drawn into it beyond what I've said, and this: there was nothing below a 7 except for Setting and Wildcard. That is exceptional. PM me or AIM me, and I'll be more than happy to address your concerns personally. I always want to help in any way I can. Heck, I'll even redo the judgment (not for forum exp, but for your obvious effort and benefit) according to a forum section that disregards traditional Althanas setting, simply to prove a point that is relevant to this thread.

We need an outlet for people like you. We need a place for talented writers to write what they want to write and still get the incredible benefit that Althanas offers: feedback.

[Enigmatic Immortal]

Super...hero...?

*looks for mask*

[Atzar]

Keep this thread on the intended topic, please.

[Connor Lacuna]

Well, I get ideas about bringing in characters from other realms sometimes, or from Earth, or whatever. I actually ended up starting a small introductory thread for one, but I'll wait until I have a few threads under Connor's belt to finish it. Mostly, though, I've been writing things for my current character and genre. Sometimes, it's just better to keep things simple, in my opinion.