Subject: Apropos founding a department...
Author:
Posted on: 2016-03-18 22:43:00 UTC
I'd like to ask, O Keeper of Statistics: how many (and which) departments have been dead (ie, without new stories published in them) for a year or more? Because I looked at, say, Despatch, and they have very little to their name (two missions), none of it new.
Cupcakes just seems to crop up a lot. I don't have the links with me, but I remember a couple stories where the author mentions having read Cupcakes and then has Rainbow Dash strapped to a table. I don't think that I've actually read one of the original versions.
I grabbed the second Reality Check story and decided that having that version of Pinkamena show up would mean that there would be no time for a charge list and the agents might be in danger.
But I know that I, as a newbie, was pretty excitable. Badfic was Horrible and you had to do something about it — you need strike down upon it with great vengeance and furious anger! Following that mindset, you gravitate toward the biggest thing you see. The biggest thing I saw, being a newcomer to the idea of fanfic, was a bad Artemis Fowl x Doctor Who crossover. It seems that other newbies see Legendaries.
[Waves obligatory walking stick]
Ahm. Back in my day, the biggest thing was founding a department. That one kind of stuck on me. ^_~
hS
*steeples fingers*.
Mysteriously,
-July
*is brick'd*
*is brick'd*
Place your bets now on who gets round to it first!
hS will probably lose this race
I'd like to ask, O Keeper of Statistics: how many (and which) departments have been dead (ie, without new stories published in them) for a year or more? Because I looked at, say, Despatch, and they have very little to their name (two missions), none of it new.
There were 11 Departments active in 2015: Mary-Sues, Floaters, the Nursery, Improbable Crossovers, All-Purpose, Operations (specifically, Building Maintenance), WhatThe, Bad Slash, Sufficiently Advanced Technology, Internal Affairs and Intelligence. The other 23 were inactive, some for a very long time.
If—and it's not an unlikely if—there was a bit of HQ in the Astral Sea or the Feywild or what have you, I don't see why a portal from Sigil couldn't make it into HQ, though I suspect the Department of External Security would keep a close eye on that.
It is appreciated. Sigil's portals mesh just a bit better than plotholes for a character I have in mind.
Is there a reason not to recruit canon characters? Or can you use them if you can make it canon-compliant? What if she disappeared, it's never stated exactly where she went, and there's a canon plot hole associated with her?
(I have my eye on Philippa Stainton from "Carry On", by Rainbow Rowell.)
There was a kinda-sorta exception to that from a while back, though.
Anyway, recruiting canons (unless they're from your own original stories) is a no-no, but recruiting character replacements is completely fine.
As I was thinking about potential agent ideas I was thinking about recruiting a unicorn from my own little world instead of from The Last Unicorn Word World. So thank you for that.
But I can't be the only non-permission-newbie who feels just a wee bit weird throwing in random characters who nobody is familiar with?
It feels sort of like going into a party without being invited. Not that I do that.
1) I'm sure you won't be the only newbie testing characters. Even if you do end up so, don't fret! RPs are for fun, so no worries!
2) RPs are good for bouncing characters off other characters — it's a good method to write a character and see what's it like and whether you want to continue writing it.
Right. Brilliant.
I can't guarantee I won't fret, but I'll try and limit it.
I'll just distract everyone with another newbie.
Another thing of note - I can't seem to make an account on the T-Board.
It just apologises and says that something went wrong.
Whoops.
"Agents – and Boarders, sometimes –come to a party in costume" means that you don’t need random characters. You can throw in a mysterious masked figure who looks like Batman or the Phantom of the Opera or whatever you like and who is essentially yourself.
HG
Maybe I ought to get a mask.
Count me in! I love roleplaying.
I have checked that on occasion, and I haven't been seeing any warnings. I have read my Constitution, by the way, though thank you for pointing that out. However as I would consider The Original Series to be just barely PG-13 maybe people assume that they should follow in its footsteps instead of obeying the Constitution. Someone would probably just need to ask around.
I was just highlighting that it didn't actually say 'don't swear in missions', since... y'know... you brought it up and all. ^_~
I personally agree with you (and good luck finding cursing in my work!). But most of our most active writers don't, so there it is.
hS
But I just bookmarked The Constitution for easy access, so that problem should exist in the future.
I should probably go edit my agents' Wiki pages so they have a general swear warning. When I started out writing I was convinced I wouldn't be using anything stronger than "damn" and look how that turned out. >.>
I do warn for the badfics that have lots of smut/possible triggers, though.
*scurries off to add that warning*
That's a dangerous amount of power we've been revealed to hold, I ought to say.
I wish I had a good quote to follow my title but I don't, so I'll shut up now.
Shutting up, I mean.