The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I thought at some point it would give up and just leave it as a string of "oog" over and over, but instead they just keep coming. My question is why the translations sometimes include words and sentences in all caps.

That is like, super high density weirdness which I assume would make total sense if I were high. Have some more weirdness, which TheGoodModAddict found a while back. If you go to google translate, and translate from Somali to English, and just type "oog" over and over, like "oog oog oog oog oog" you'll get some very interesting translations.

This was posted on the Subreddit for fans of the band tool, and tagged "drug related":

The art of a moving line at a rate of 9.99frequency is often heard as a "waetrolia" primitive word speak but if amplified to a 6.725 at a monofrequency of 2.ti orr w.25 watts can bring lude messages from the underlord UL Damian on track parabol. To track parabola. Research?

I enjoy the Harry Potter series, also Warhammer 40,000, Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series, and various other things. I discovered the PPC via Television Tropes and Idioms (tvtropes), and I hope to write PPC missions using agents Colonel Caleb Bradbury (a retired Argentinian army officer from world 1.567 repeating), and Rasputin Gibbs ( reptilian humanoid from world 1.963, where most conspiracy theories are true). My writing credentials include two completed National Novel Writing Months, and various short stories. I look forward to aiding in the fight against badfic.

... when I have time, it sounds pretty interesting.

Anyways back on topic. You say you have a hard time understanding technical details. If you don't know where to actually start creating technical details, there are six broad questions you need to ask; keep in mind these six broad questions can be used for each part of worldbuilding, although the significance of each question may vary depending on which part you are developing. As you may have guessed, the six questions are who, what, when, where, why, and how. These are obviously too broad to be of direct use, so let's break it down, this is by no means an exhaustive list.

Who - who can use magic
- Can anyone use magic?
- Is talent decided at birth, or can the gift be acquired through some special means?
- What determines power?
- Can a person get more powerful? If so, how?
- Does race affect magic?
  - Are there some types of magic that some races cannot use?
  - Are certain races better at magic?
    - Better at only certain types?
  - Do some races have an innate form of magic?
    - Are some races incapable of magic save for any innate magic?

What - What is magic? (You answered this pretty well already, but here are a few more questions you can consider)
-What are the costs associated with magic?
  - Are there different costs for different types of magic?
  - Do certain races get a discount for certain types of magic?
- Are there any taboos associated with magic?
- Is there an "Order" to the universe that magic cannot break?
  - If there is and it can be broken, what are the consequences or extra cost of breaking said Order?
- What are the weaknesses and limitations of magic?

When - when can you use magic?
- Are there certain spells that only work in certain times?
- Are there auspicious periods where magic can get stronger/ cost less?
  - If so, do certain periods correspond to certain types of magic?
  - Can this time period be used to break taboos?

Where - where can you use magic?
- Are there dead zones? (places where magic does not work or is weaker)
- Are there places where magic is stronger? (Ley lines perhaps?)
- Are there places where certain types of magic is strengthened but others are weakened?
  - Is there a way to manipulate the affinity of such places?

How - How is magic used?
- what is the procedure of spell casting?
  - Magic symbols?
  - Gestures and movements?
  - Sound?
  - Words?
  - Force of will?
  - A combination of any of the above as well as anything I did not think of?
  - Do these differ depending on magic type/race?
- How is magic applied to technology?
- How are new spells discovered?

Why - This is arguably the trickiest, and not always necessary. Just keep "Why?" in mind whenever you make a decision in your world building, if the answer doesn't require too much metaphysical stuff, try to answer it. An example of an answerable one is "Why are there dead zones?" An example of one you could leave alone is "Why does magic exist?"

As for keeping all this in your mind, make a document of the answers you have given as a reference sheet. Also, since these are all yes and no answers, specify if yes.

Oh, and don't forget Sanderson's laws.

Well, kind of. It's really more for an Internet buddy of mine than for me. Des introduced us way backand I've been working on beta-reading his YGO fic pretty regularly. Unfortunately, I need to bust my butt harder than usual when the semester starts (long story, mostly involves me screwing myself) and won't be able to work on it after finishing the "current" chapter.

Username is clickable, so hit me up if you're interested in doing this for a few months.

I was telling an outside friend of mine about this situation, and she shared with me the story of the butterfly's struggle, which I thought was very uplifting. I realize it may not be the right message for everyone at all times, but as we individually and collectively struggle with our various challenges, I hope it's because we're empowering our wings to fly.

There are several versions of the butterfly story out there; this is a link to the one at the top of my Google hits:

http://instructor.mstc.edu/instructor/swallerm/Struggle%20-%20Butterfly.htm

~Neshomeh

I realize this issue is rather moot now, but I still feel this should be added.

Yesterday, I had it pointed out to me that as a result of some circumstances that have/are hurt(ing) him, Sprinkles has been infected with (this is the best verb I can think of here) certain persistent patterns of behavior and conversation style that, in the aggregate, would (in the judgement of the person explaining this) almost surely cause something like this incident to reoccur if Sprinkles came into contact with other vulnerable people similar to X (the victim currently at issue). That is, there is very good reason to believe this issue would not be an isolated incident.

It was further pointed out to me that this was something that would be quite resolvable with some help, but that because of some circumstances Sprinkles is in, he wouldn't be in a position to receive such help at or near this time. This concern for X and other people that would be drawn into similar situations make the person I was talking to uncomfortable with having Sprinkles in the PPC Discord.

I'd like to reiterate that this doesn't make Sprinkles a bad person or anything like that. I hope Sprinkles can get away from the circumstances that are causing and prolonging this issue and get help and healing.

I have somewhat lower estimates of the probability of recurrence than the person who explained this to me did. However, I know basically nothing about this type of issue. In light of this information, I find myself rather unsure that my proposed solution would have actually solved anything. I am also, however, not entirely convinced that making Sprinkles leave under these circumstances would have been a precedent we would want to set.

I just don't know what we should have done anymore. I thought I had a good idea. It turns out that may not have been the case. So, even though we are not deciding on anything anymore, I (entirely symbolically) abstain.

- Tomash

Ah. So I guess I was overall wrong for saying it could apply to us, but... eh, this was still a good discussion to figure out how this all works. Thanks for the clarification.

-Twistey

P.S. On a lighter but unrelated note, I just finished Good Omens. Fun book! I didn't know where to tell you guys, so here.

The difference being that democracy = the people make the rules, and anarchy = no one makes rules.

As you noted, we do have a "how things are done" in our Constitution, and our lack of mods on the Board just means that it's everyone's responsibility to make sure those standards are upheld. Those of us who have been around long enough to have internalized this set the example and instruct as needed, and the newcomers generally either figure out how it works and start helping (even if that's just by passively getting along) or go away.

We're unusual in that we've made this more or less work for so long.

Also, the splinter groups I mentioned were more "we're not doing the PPC anymore but we still want to be in touch with our PPC friends," but it's hard to keep up a relationship with someone when the main thing that you shared isn't there anymore. I think that's why they fizzled.

Though, we did have someone plagiarize the PPC one time, on two wikis. Wikia was very helpful in shutting those down pretty quickly once I showed them the mountain of evidence. That was a nice, simple problem with a nice, simple solution.

~Neshomeh

Haha, we were talking about that chapter a while ago! I've even tried the Botnik writer myself, and it was... interesting.

Anyway, nice to meet you! I'm Twistey, an amateur creator who can't decide which medium to stick to, partially thanks to the 4 years that Scratch.mit.edu had me brainwashed into thinking that the site and its community was the center of the universe, leaving me with the idea that I can program my own games and yeah it's totally fine to program with colored blocks. (But hey, at least Stencyl is a step up. If I try I'll get somewhere.) I'm pretty active on here.

Enough about me, how about you? What are your fandoms? How did you discover the PPC, and what type of stuff do you plan to write for it? Any character ideas? Anything interesting you've already written? I'd love to know more!

Finally, for your newbie gift, here's a copy of a very strange story. From what I'd guess, it seems to be an outsider's misinterpretation of the Original Series. Not that they have any reason to, other than Wikia's adblock ban. If you stick around long enough, I'll inform you of its exact contents.

Nice to meet you! I hope you have a wonderful time here and welcome to the PPC!

-Twistey

...Though given my lack of ability to understand technical details (I have something of a short attention span) it might be tricky. Well, that's what research and planning are for, right?

I'm also partially inspired by a novel I found called "Dirty Magic". Basically it takes place in a world where magic exists, but the story focuses on a cop dealing in illegal potions. (It's part of a series, and I haven't read the rest of them yet, so I'm not sure if actual spells are involved).

That being said, I do recommend this book if you like urban fantasy. The author really put a lot of work into creating the world, something I want to emulate. Be warned though, it gets pretty intense at points.

Minor typos: " thought he" in the first line and "DIS" -> "DIA" (as you know, DIS never existed)

Now, my thoughts here are basically that this was a nice, surreal, thing that fits in the setting of the PPC rather well.

- Tomash

Must've gotten lost in the Board's formatting and thought that there were way more people here than there are, haha! Whoops!

And the fracturing also does make sense. I kind of want to take a look at those, just out of curiosity/my "what if there's something funny (long rant about the original PPC, rules that don't make sense/are exactly the same except for one thing, uncreative name that has to do with ours, etc.)?" instinct. Evidently if they were all started by drama and failed, they could have these things, because from my deduction, I can guess that the general idea behind them was "the PPC except not the PPC," and there was no real change to any fundamental concept, making it have no chance against us for people looking to join something like this. I guess.

As for your question about larger organizations, this is what I think I have so far: when there's a huge amount of people and no one real "this is how things are done", a small conflict between a few people can escalate beyond control or compromise, and basically create a bunch of warring factions, some of which may go off on their own and start a different organization. Basically, using internet terms, flame war + no moderator to define the rules and ban those who don't follow them = possibility of fractures. I think. It probably has more nuance than that (I mean, we have our Constitution, so there is some degree of "how it's done" here), but this is what I've figured out so far. (Technically I learned this from a how-to on writing fictitious organizations, but the logic behind it makes sense in the real world. I can send you the link if you wish.)

-Twistey

It's a shame he had to break up with that guy to become a Space Marine, and that he's been kinda repressing the pain of that for the last several thousand years.

I liked how you used plain dialogue to tell most of the story. It worked pretty well.

The last line is good description.

- Tomash

I'm glad it "worked." I know it's an utterly bizarre story, especially for me, but . . . I was puzzling over the prompt at work and it just kind of surfaced in my brain. I read my Complete E.A.P. way back in high school, so I don't know what brought the Angel of the Odd back into my consciousness last week . . . At least Larfen got a character out of this?

—definitely getting all of these reviewed, at least by the end of his next weekend

A perfect rendition of Ilraen's first date cultural assimilation session, and awww! Farilan does have a heart! If I didn't ship Faraen before, I sure do now.

And no nitpicks from the resident Haitian on the (admittedly limited) French! That's a plus!

If I am stepping out of line, then please say so. However, what do you mean, "if I hadn't shown up here, it probably would have been[worse]"? I thought you mentioned that your parents were accepting and that you were glad to get it off your shoulders?

but it seems that doctorlit said basically everything that I would want to say before I even took a look at the interlude. And even though the beginning of the relationship is still in the works, a quick look at Whitney's page on the Wiki showed that I seemed to have missed or forgotten a few missions. Looks like I've got some reading to do!

Good luck with that mission you're working on. Knowing you, it will be worth the read when it comes out.

I hope you enjoyed your holidays, and good luck in 2018!

Extra comma: It may have been particularly cold this evening,, but she was in no way going to miss her daily session.

Whether or not this continues, which I sincerely hope it doesn't, I am backing out of it. All of it. Having been involved with both concerned parties for a notable length of time, I am personally shattered that it ever came to this. I think I'm still in denial of what's happening; what I saw during the previous months is so starkly different from what's gone on the past few days, I can scarcely believe this is real. For that matter, I am deeply sorry. I'm sorry that this happened in the first place and I'm sorry for any and all pain I caused during this argument. If I've wronged you in any way, I acknowledge it and I apologize with all the sincerity I can muster. I feel as though I have lost my family over the course of this discussion and nothing about what seems to be the final assessment sits well with me, but it's apparently not my place to say. I'm not in possession of the full facts and I'm honestly not qualified to be here, making judgements. I am sorry for my hurtful words, I am sorry for overstepping my bounds, and I am sorry that I can't agree with most/many of you. I hope that in time, we can all recover from this, and that someday I'll be able to wash the bitter taste from the back of my throat. But for the time being, I need both time and space, so this is my goodbye.

and I did not get lost, which is always a good thing. But one sentence is throwing me off:

“Charge,” both agents whispered, leaning farther around the tree to watch with bile fascination.

That last phrase there, "bile fascination", threw me off. At first, I thought it was a typo for "vile", but that doesn't seem right either. Could you please explain what you were going for here?