The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

While the vast majority of the replies are related to the PPC universe one way or another, you could also write something that is not connected to the PPC as well. Personally I'd recommend keeping it to a canon well known enough for other people to recognise it for giving concrit, but you can do anything you want, so long as its inspired by the prompts.

Are these prompts meant to be just for the PPC universe, or could one write/post something inspired by the prompt but entirely unrelated to the PPC?

Thanks!

Just want to say I'm glad to hear of you again. I'm sorry real life is keeping you away, but I hope you're doing well and keeping fed and all that. Keep yourself safe and healthy, okay?

—doctorlit, caring long distance

It's been about a decade, I think. Although I certainly hope no one is feeling intimidated by me, as I'm hardly even a person.

So hi. I'm doctorlit. I am a workaholic with a psychological need to feel busy. I have little to no emotional spectrum to speak of (unless a hose gets kinked around me, in which case the Rage Glasses go on). I have difficulty understanding the emotions of others, and can barely tell people apart unless I've been around them constantly for months. I strongly believe in depriving myself of fun time unless I've run out of work to do, and am secretly obsessed with living forever.

I'm really stingy with money, even though I don't really need to be. Even so, I've amassed a large chunk of tv shows, books and games in my condo that I almost never touch, due to the previously mentioned fun deprivation, and a very time-eating zookeeper job at an understaffed zoo.

I have a large and complex spin-off planned in my head that weaves the stories of multiple characters together, but I'm also a perfectionist, so i write so slowly that I doubt I'll ever get it all written out before I die.

I don't really know what else to say about me. I eat, sleep, and job, and sometimes I do hobby work in between.

—doctorlit, or whatever there is of him

Oh my gosh! I almost can't believe we actually have our Permission now. Just... gods, it's been six months of us working together. Six months on one pair! Granted, most of it was waiting around for beta replies, but still... just... gods.

So happy.

But thank you so much for the Slime! I love that game, even though I've never played it, and the Pink Slimes have always felt so freaking happy. *takes the slime and hugs it*

But I did say for people to talk about things, so what the heck?

Hiya, I'm Thoth, kinda-not-newbie-maybe? I mean, I've been around for most of a year now...

It seems I've earned some degree of respect, somehow, and I also got permission and did a co-mission. I'm honestly kinda baffled by all this, but it seems pretty cool? so I'm just gonna roll with it.

I'm probably the youngest member of the PPC Programmer Coalition, which exists because I say it does.

Besides that, I'm an avid reader (most recently, Neshomeh has dragged me into finally reading Pern), and a gamer, although most of the games I actually play on a regular basis released before I was born.

Also a bit of a computer history nut. So that's a thing.

Yeah, so... the oldbies were asking the newbies and whatnot to ask them stuff... and I'm a newbie? so I guess... the oldbies can ask me stuff?

What the heck. I've been grilling you guys, you deserve a free swing or two. :-P

But that's just because the Phobos botmatch is burned into my brain, because I spend god-knows how many hours beating it.

...Also, it seems like a lot of people here have read Gates of Fire. Would you lot recommend it?

Please accept these self-updating guidebooks of all the deathtraps in the multiverse. Make good use of them.

Hope you'll be doing well in England... And that I'll be able to go to an eventual Gathering.

Cool. :D

Yeah, I joined on January 13, 2013. Something like that. I'd rediscovered the PPC around December 2012--I'd been reading PPC stuff for at least 4-6 years before that (it and assorted associated communities helped shape a lot of my ideas about fanfic and other writing), but December 2012 was when I found out it was still a pretty active community.

Funnily enough, I wasn't planning to stay; I just wanted to ask about writing an outtake with PPC agents for the Mary-Sue parody fic I was writing. And then someone asked if I was planning to get Permission, and I started thinking about it, and suddenly I had a bunch of characters forming...and now I'm still here, developing stories and characters and occasionally actually finishing something, getting it through the beta stage, and even posting it. Amazing how plans change.

~Z

Sorry you lot missed it (she didn't go up to the board, it seems... :-/), but I got to say hi to her, which was pretty awesome.

...No, I definitely didn't fanboy at all. Not in the slightest. I definitely didn't sing the praises of Suedom to the entire chat and insist that everyone should go read it ASAP. I most certainly wasn't awed by the presence of the author of one of my favorite PPC affiliated works in any way. Just to be clear. ;)

But yeah, apparently her and Andy are still Doing Things. And
apparently they've been talking about maybe doing Writing Things. I really hope they tell us if that ever happens, because I bet it would be amazing.

Oh, and if you haven't read Suedom, go read Suedom! Missandman was still up when I read it, so I have no idea where to find it now, but it as totally amazing.

That all makes a lot of sense.

I think the balance of actions to gameplay and the quality of writing (so you do actually feel like it’s worth waiting for) is what does it for me. It feels a bit like reading a magazine of good stories published in serial (albeit more complex and personally customized).

Though I don't think 10-year-old me was that lazy! XD

*everyone runs*

Yeah, alright I may be a bit too excitable about getting this new prompt out. I'm planning on switching to every other Monday now, but obviously today is an anomaly. And to further make this an anomaly, I have not one but two prompts for you (one because it was the one I was planning on doing and the other because it kind of feels appropriate), so ready your pens (or keyboards or fingers or styluses or...) and get a load of these:

Prompt 1: One of your characters is racing

Racing who or what? That's your choice.

Prompt 2: Reunions

Because this is the return of the prompts and oldbies are springing out of the woodwork (well... webwork) below.

Novastorme
PS I swear this time I will write one... what do you mean I've said that before? I'm serious this time.

Hello! I am Scapegrace. I write a lot more original fiction than fanfic these days, but I'm still a colossal nerd. My primary fandom these days is probably Worm, a web novel about a bullied teenage girl who has superpowers and eventually saves the world along with a ragtag bunch of misfits she was befriended by. Other fandoms include HP, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Pokémon, Red Dwarf, Overwatch, Doctor Who, early Buffy, XCOM, and more besides.

My primary interest, however, is in robot combat. I'm an avid follower of the UK live scene and try to keep up with the US stuff. I have watched and devoured every episode of Robot Wars, Battlebots, Robotica, King Of Bots, Clash Bots, and This Is Fighting Robots (the last three are new shows from China). I am obsessed with combat robotics to the same degree that hS is with Tolkien and Ix is with Harry Potter. Does it constitute a fandom? I don't know. What I DO know is that it's a huge part of my life.

...

It occurs to me that talking about my obsession with murderously violent killer robots is not helping with the "fear not the oldbies" thing. Whoops.

I agree with the rest about more gatherings, it'll be great to have another Boarder in Britain (not that I have anything against the other British Boarders)

I've always thought of you being around for a while longer than that. No offence.

So, at the time that I was thinking about changing my name, I was reading Gates of Fire for a class. There is a passage about the god (demigod?) Phobos and how the Spartans conquer fear with fear, rather than fearlessness. I just really liked it.

And now to answer some frequently asked questions:

1) No, I'm not named after the moon of Mars.

2) Bees, small spaces, an unholy combination of the two.

-Phobos

...is oldbier than I am. Also a few others who've poked their heads in over the recent years--BeautyID, I think we've seen Saphie not too long ago?

However, I think at this point I am definitely the oldbiest person who has never really left. It's a heavy responsibility, which I cope with primarily by hiding.

--Kaitlyn, mature adult

I think a big part of it is that FL simply has among the best writing of any game that uses this system. Seriously, hats off to the FBG writing crew, they've been consistently amazing. Nevermind that they keep bringing in top-notch freelancers like Emily Short (award-winning IF writer) to round things off.

Another part of it is that FL's gameplay is really passive. You play for a few minutes every few hours or so in a side tab, and that works very well. If you really want more, you can buy Fate, or sign up as an Exceptional Friend—Which actually gives you content, not just more actions.

The other thing is, that action system is there to gate content, but in FL, it's not just a moneymaking thing: it's an integeral part of how the game works. If I had to guess, FBG probably makes most of their money on bought stories or Exceptional Friendships, where the primary benefit is content, not more actions. No, FBG has the action cap in place to keep you from burning through all their content at once, and to give themselves time to expand the game: otherwise, they'd have to try and write as fast as you can read, or you'd lose interest.

Finally, it's pretty generous with actions. Sure, you only get 20, but 20 actions get you pretty far. By the time you've burnt through your actions in FL, you always feel like you've made a good amount of progress on whatever you're doing.

Hope that works.