Post 2
Chalks wrote:
Well. As a new member of the drod.net forums...I got caught up in the spirit of all things that involve the words smite, delver, and Beethro, quite quickly (then promptly became addicted to JtRH despite only having the demo). I then proceded to print out almost every single link in A Cultured Eighth and read it ALL. Now my eyes hurt. 
I never intended my thread to have such an extreme effect; that must have taken a lot of time and effort!
But now look what you've done - exactly how much paper did you use? I hope you recycle it at the least.
Despite that, I was very intruiged by the Construct The Story thread and the Reconstruct The Story thread. I didn't really feal like posting on top of those threads however because the last post was over 3 months ago. So I decided to start a new one. Following are the AWESOME rules from agaricus5:
...
I didn't expect people would still be interested in that either. I'm quite flattered.
However, there are one or two (small) artifacts left over from my early posting style, which still make me cringe, actually. Since I don't want to edit the real thread for posterity and reference, maybe you could edit the rules here to bring them up-to-date and make them slightly more readable (at least to me):
1. Avoid swear words - low-level rude words are tolerated (they are best avoided), but no unpleasant slang or swearing, please. In short, stick to the
Forum's policy on swearing.
2. Please avoid references to explicit ideas or content - it may embarrass people or make for unpleasant reading.
3. Keep it DROD-related - absolutely anything can happen on the surface (or in) the Eighth, whether old, new, not yet in existence, logical, illogical, impossible or weird, but don't let the story leave the confines of Beethro's world.
4. Respect the creativity of other people - if you think there is something you don't like about what someone has written, or you want to make a comment, be polite about it.
5. - This contradicts rule 7, so it probably should be removed.
6. Finally, if two people post at the same time, then unfortunately, it's the first that gets posted that takes precedence.
These rules are great, but in my mind they need two more...
I think the last two Construct the story threads went on for WAY to long. They started becoming very random and VERY confusing after the 10th page (of 8pt type) or so... 
so here's the new rule:
7. The story must have a satisfactory ending before the 30th post (this will end up being about 10 pages of story).
Therefore, each poster should write the post number above their post (so that we don't have to go back and count every single time).
Nice.
I think the original was just a sort of experiment, and so over time, the order sort of decayed into randomness (people ended up not bothering to check their additions for coherency), so it sort of faded away. 30 posts, however, is a bit short in my opinion; it's only about 2-3 pages, and probably not enough to create a long enough story worth reading. Perhaps 50 might be a better target (although some stricter control on the story will be necessary).
Also...from the Construct the Story thread... Sokko wrote:
I've discovered I like this technique of giving the next poster a decision to make before he continues the story. Let's keep it up, shall we?
I like it too.
8. The writer should have a very obvious choice at the end of his post so that the next one can follow the story easily.
Indeed, that's a nice rule. Sort of like the
Adventure Game, but in a more Eighther style.
Perhaps a rule #9 might be needed, just to make the point more explicit.
9. You can write about whatever you want to happen, but please try to make it in some way linked to what's been written previously.
“Wait!” he thought, “What about my beer?”
Should Beethro investigate the screams? Or should he grab his beer first (which would involve the lengthy process of arguing about how many greckles it should cost).
Beethro did a quick calculation, and worked out that he could probably investigate the screams and return to the table in less time than it would take to negotiate the price of his beer. He therefore ignored the barman, and finished turning round to face the beach. He saw, to his surprise, that a giant squid, which was not normally found outside its dwelling-place in the depths of the Fellsome Wisp, had appeared on the shore and was attacking people near the water's edge with its long tentacles. Fortunately, Beethro still had his Very Big Sword™ on him, so he ran down the beach towards the squid, brandishing the weapon and yelling in order to attract its attention.
The squid, in response, rotated itself slightly to get a better view of Beethro, but was rather unimpressed with what it saw. It didn't know that Beethro was one of the most experienced smitemasters on the Eighth, but that wouldn't have mattered to it much, since its 30 tentacles were all invulnerable to his sword and each was about 20 feet long, leaving Beethro relatively helpless against it. Beethro's yelling, however, began to irritate the squid as he came closer to it, since it didn't like to be shouted at, even by something many times smaller. The squid shifted slightly once more to look at the people running away from it and wondered if it was worth attacking Beethro or not.
Does the squid attack Beethro (but lose its chance to obtain an easily grabbed lunch), or does it pursue the escaping people (and risk getting a headache from Beethro's loud yell)?
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Resident Medic/Mycologist
