Starstream Think Tank

BMPixy

BMPixy

Well-Known Member
DarkGemini24601 said:
I think we still have half or more to go, it's going to be a bit waylaid since the next thing up is with Zmby and Shadow. Zmby's sick and Shadow might not be able to post stuff in general due to his restrictions, so we might have to wait a day or two for Zmby to get better.

While we're waiting, though, I ran an idea by Zombie and a few others that has received generally good reception. It's become fairly obvious to everyone that by the nature of its size, the Golden Wind doesn't make for a collab setting that's going to be suited to most situations. We need a broader hub. This is my solution:

A massive, megacity space station at a crossroads between multiple regions of space. The hub station would be varied, possibly even by being something like a halo ring. It would have bio-areas that are chunks of wilderness fitted in, cosmopolitan areas with a multitude of races, individual enclaves of cultures that prefer to control access, and many things in-between.

As for the regions that surround it: those with their own ships could visit them or ferry passengers with them for extended collabs (or taking others of their own characters, for example: Kaz ferrying the Vizcarra siblings). A region would have its own 'personality', with a selection of race(s), environments, factions. Anyone Zmby approved could design their own region for use in a character plot or to contribute to the main plot as it manifests. They can also use designing a region large or small to generate material for missions.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm... gonna be honest here, which is always a bad sign when you have to lead off with that. I'm not particularly thrilled by this idea. For me, the promise of this setting was the sort of 'here today, gone tomorrow' kinda Cowboy Bebop style plots, where a location and side characters crop up solely to develop a character's personal arc, and are left behind as soon as that purpose is fulfilled. And while yes, the hub would have such an ability to allow such locations to be made, it doesn't allow them to be left behind, which is the crucial part in my opinion. In a setting like that, once a locale is made or a person is introduced, they gain permanence, long-term consequences, and a cause to be taken into account in the broader scope of things. It's sort of like The Next Generation vs Deep Space 9 - both are good (DS9 is my favorite Trek, and Sisko is my favorite Captain), but they're good for different reasons. When I was writing Chuck and Gazan, I was expecting TNG, so I'm not too sure how'd they fit into a more DS9 style plot.

If everyone else is down with the idea, then I'll go along, I can adjust my plans for my characters, there's only two of 'em. But I do want to lodge this objection, because who knows, something might come of it.
 
DarkGemini24601

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
BMPixy said:
I'm... gonna be honest here, which is always a bad sign when you have to lead off with that. I'm not particularly thrilled by this idea. For me, the promise of this setting was the sort of 'here today, gone tomorrow' kinda Cowboy Bebop style plots, where a location and side characters crop up solely to develop a character's personal arc, and are left behind as soon as that purpose is fulfilled. And while yes, the hub would have such an ability to allow such locations to be made, it doesn't allow them to be left behind, which is the crucial part in my opinion. In a setting like that, once a locale is made or a person is introduced, they gain permanence, long-term consequences, and a cause to be taken into account in the broader scope of things. It's sort of like The Next Generation vs Deep Space 9 - both are good (DS9 is my favorite Trek, and Sisko is my favorite Captain), but they're good for different reasons. When I was writing Chuck and Gazan, I was expecting TNG, so I'm not too sure how'd they fit into a more DS9 style plot.

If everyone else is down with the idea, then I'll go along, I can adjust my plans for my characters, there's only two of 'em. But I do want to lodge this objection, because who knows, something might come of it.
Click to expand...
Alright, I can understand that view. I will come back with the point that you don’t have to design a region, and your characters can remain on the ship if you prefer that constraint. Personally, I enjoy developing setting as an appeal in of itself, and a story where setting is trivial and unimportant has little appeal to me. In Cowboy Bebop, the story only needs to follow the characters. They spend offscreen time bored in transit, but we’re not given entire episodes of them sitting around doing nothing. Whereas here, inaction means little material for collabs, and little engagement I think. The difference in medium matters.
 
Last edited:
BMPixy

BMPixy

Well-Known Member
DarkGemini24601 said:
Alright, I can understand that view. I will come back with the point that you don’t have to design a region, and your charactwrs can remain on the ship if you prefer that constraint. Personally, I enjoy developing setting as an appeal in of itself, and a story where setting is trivial and unimportant has little appeal to me. In Cowboy Bebop, the story only needs to follow the characters. They spend offscreen time bored in transit, but we’re not given entire episodes of them sitting around doing nothing. Whereas here, inaction means little material for collabs, and little engagement I think. The difference in medium matters.
Click to expand...

I believe you're misunderstanding my point a touch. Your final point is accurate, and reminded me to check the feasibility of some assumptions I had (and found them lacking that), so your overall argument is correct, I just want to clear up misconceptions, so humor me if you could. It is less that I don't want to design a region, it's more that I was expecting to use regions I designed as essentially the setting equivalent of parchment paper: something to prepare the meal on, but you toss it once you're done cooking. Whereas here, it's more like investing in a cutting board - you keep it around between prep sessions, and the scratch marks of when you cut a little too deep into the food hang around for the next time you want to chop something up.

But, I will reiterate - I will absolutely not oppose this idea, especially now that I remember the logistic situation - writing on my own time has perhaps left me a bit spoiled - I'm just bringing these points up because I'd prefer them here than stewing in my brain.
 
DarkGemini24601

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
BMPixy said:
I believe you're misunderstanding my point a touch. Your final point is accurate, and reminded me to check the feasibility of some assumptions I had (and found them lacking that), so your overall argument is correct, I just want to clear up misconceptions, so humor me if you could. It is less that I don't want to design a region, it's more that I was expecting to use regions I designed as essentially the setting equivalent of parchment paper: something to prepare the meal on, but you toss it once you're done cooking. Whereas here, it's more like investing in a cutting board - you keep it around between prep sessions, and the scratch marks of when you cut a little too deep into the food hang around for the next time you want to chop something up.

But, I will reiterate - I will absolutely not oppose this idea, especially now that I remember the logistic situation - writing on my own time has perhaps left me a bit spoiled - I'm just bringing these points up because I'd prefer them here than stewing in my brain.
Click to expand...
Mmm. I'm seeking to reconcile your position because I don't want you to, say, enjoy the story less because of the inclusion of this element. I understand your position better I think, and I don't think it's as opposed as you think. Let me clarify a few things.
  • The regions surrounding the hub will not be the only places we visit. Zmby did say (somewhere) that the story would be based in a pretty large chunk of space. Even if the location he specified is outdated now, the spirit of what he was saying stands. The crossroads and its surrounding sectors are not the only places we can visit. Therefore:
  • You can design areas outside of the reusable regions for your purposes. Jobs can easily take us beyond our 'neighborhood' so to speak. For the purpose of your character stories, you have that flexibility.
  • And along with that, the neighborhood can be designed with flexibility to suit how people want to use it. I plan to reuse locations in my region if I have cause to, but since I'm the one designing it, I'd have a degree of control over it. Obviously Zmby has veto power on anything he wouldn't want, but if I say, didn't want other people to visit a particular location for some reason, I could do that. My thinking is that other people will only be in my region if I'm there to handle setting information, or if I'm working closely enough with them to trust they'd get the info right.
  • So in the same vein, if you took over a region you could have it stretch broadly enough back that the places you visit don't have to be revisited.
 
BMPixy

BMPixy

Well-Known Member
DarkGemini24601 said:
Mmm. I'm seeking to reconcile your position because I don't want you to, say, enjoy the story less because of the inclusion of this element. I understand your position better I think, and I don't think it's as opposed as you think. Let me clarify a few things.
  • The regions surrounding the hub will not be the only places we visit. Zmby did say (somewhere) that the story would be based in a pretty large chunk of space. Even if the location he specified is outdated now, the spirit of what he was saying stands. The crossroads and its surrounding sectors are not the only places we can visit. Therefore:
  • You can design areas outside of the reusable regions for your purposes. Jobs can easily take us beyond our 'neighborhood' so to speak. For the purpose of your character stories, you have that flexibility.
  • And along with that, the neighborhood can be designed with flexibility to suit how people want to use it. I plan to reuse locations in my region if I have cause to, but since I'm the one designing it, I'd have a degree of control over it. Obviously Zmby has veto power on anything he wouldn't want, but if I say, didn't want other people to visit a particular location for some reason, I could do that. My thinking is that other people will only be in my region if I'm there to handle setting information, or if I'm working closely enough with them to trust they'd get the info right.
  • So in the same vein, if you took over a region you could have it stretch broadly enough back that the places you visit don't have to be revisited.
Click to expand...

Alright, that deals with my points in a way that I can be satisfied with. As long as there's a place 'beyond the wormhole' in DS9 terms that I can briefly fuck off to when I need to, I'unno, have Chuck fight Legally-Distinctly-Not-Godzilla, that's all I need, everything else is icing on the cake. Now, gotta plan on how to get Chuck a ship so he and Gazan can do dumb shit and get captured by Jem'Hadar without having to bum a ride from Kazane...
 
Frostlich1228 (Alt)

Frostlich1228 (Alt)

Well-Known Member
DarkGemini24601 said:
Mmm. I'm seeking to reconcile your position because I don't want you to, say, enjoy the story less because of the inclusion of this element. I understand your position better I think, and I don't think it's as opposed as you think. Let me clarify a few things.
  • The regions surrounding the hub will not be the only places we visit. Zmby did say (somewhere) that the story would be based in a pretty large chunk of space. Even if the location he specified is outdated now, the spirit of what he was saying stands. The crossroads and its surrounding sectors are not the only places we can visit. Therefore:
  • You can design areas outside of the reusable regions for your purposes. Jobs can easily take us beyond our 'neighborhood' so to speak. For the purpose of your character stories, you have that flexibility.
  • And along with that, the neighborhood can be designed with flexibility to suit how people want to use it. I plan to reuse locations in my region if I have cause to, but since I'm the one designing it, I'd have a degree of control over it. Obviously Zmby has veto power on anything he wouldn't want, but if I say, didn't want other people to visit a particular location for some reason, I could do that. My thinking is that other people will only be in my region if I'm there to handle setting information, or if I'm working closely enough with them to trust they'd get the info right.
  • So in the same vein, if you took over a region you could have it stretch broadly enough back that the places you visit don't have to be revisited.
Click to expand...

I like the idea personally. I think it could be very enjoyable. I guess the Video Game equivalent would be the Citadel from Mass Effect?


Also if anyone is willing to collab with Yyashtra hit me up! :3
 
BMPixy

BMPixy

Well-Known Member
On a completely different note, here's something I whipped together in ten minutes on a whim after having a dumb idea:
EmDashvsHyphen.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top