Open-Source AAR: a narrative project many people work on with pretty much no organization at all. One person starts the character with a little background, plays some, writes some, then uploads the save file and posts the story so someone else can continue it.
To be clear, a few sentences and a save file are absolutely accepted. Let me repeat: the maximum required is that you play the character, upload the save when you are done, and write a sentence or two about what you did with him. Please don't think that the example set by Blackfish and myself has raised the bar that high and you will be laughed out of the thread for submitting any less. I'm more interested in the number of participants and the strange/diverse places you fine people take the character to than long entries with lots of pictures. I did it because I couldn't stop myself from continuing to type and I suspect Blackfish is the same way.
I was inspired to this idea by Waggywags in this thread. The difference here is that there was no mention of a continuous narrative that tied the save games together.
For this particular one (the first of its kind I think though similar projects are welcomed) the rules are this:
Character Particulars:
Started with: Impoverished Noble, Page, Squire, and REVENGE in Shariz.
Character Introduction:
Ogdelbur (Og-del-boor) is a capable and bitter man in his late 40's, rather old for the time. He has only suffered through his life without a single day of contentment. His father was respected as a noble but in the hard and infertile land south of Amashke that just meant he was targeted for punishment by larger clans when his village did not produce enough tribute. To pay some of the debt supposedly owed Ogdelbur was indentured to his overlords as a page and then a squire. When his time was up he returned to the village where he grew up but had seldom seen the last few years and found strangers had moved in after the original inhabitants abandoned it a year or so previous. Ogdelbur was not welcome in his home and when he tried to force the issue he was beaten and cast out. After wandering for some weeks he found the remnants of his father's clan squatting beside a stream higher in the hills where they thought they could be left alone. Due to some sense of familial duty he stayed with them and took a wife, fathered children.
However, his children all died too young for him to have grown to like them and his wife whom he never loved but also never cheated on left him in the night with a traveling goods peddler. Waking up the next morning to find his nearly 5 decades of life had amounted to nothing and that he was considered an old failure by the younger men of the village, Ogdelbur had finally had enough. When a strong young lad began to mock 'Old Og' for his inability to keep his woman home Ogdelbur stabbed him in the chest with the small knife he had been using to carve the stone figures he had taken up as a hobby. A little surprised at his own reaction but then pleased by the shock and dismay on the younger man's face, Ogdelbur calmly stood up, walked to his hut, packed the rusty sword, shield, hunting crossbow, and bolts he had stolen and stashed away while a squire, took his carvings and rode away on his swaybacked old saddle horse. Free from all that had dragged him down - family, home, decency - he finally smiled and kept on smiling even wider as he remembered the upstart mocking him then dumbly tugging on the little knife in his chest. Ogdelbur had caused misery when the world mocked him and he was quite pleased. Exercising this newfound freedom and taking revenge on a world that had only beaten him down his whole life until it finally killed him occurred to Ogdelbur as precisely the thing he would do.
Change Log: The way I am numbering the chapters is based on their timeline, how many submissions precede them in that timeline, then what order chapters with the same pedigree are submitted. Currently the tree looks like this:
A very complex one could eventually look like this:
To be clear, a few sentences and a save file are absolutely accepted. Let me repeat: the maximum required is that you play the character, upload the save when you are done, and write a sentence or two about what you did with him. Please don't think that the example set by Blackfish and myself has raised the bar that high and you will be laughed out of the thread for submitting any less. I'm more interested in the number of participants and the strange/diverse places you fine people take the character to than long entries with lots of pictures. I did it because I couldn't stop myself from continuing to type and I suspect Blackfish is the same way.
I was inspired to this idea by Waggywags in this thread. The difference here is that there was no mention of a continuous narrative that tied the save games together.
For this particular one (the first of its kind I think though similar projects are welcomed) the rules are this:
- Anyone can work from any save point even if someone else already has/is. I will keep track of the evolving posts and alternate universes in the OP. You can even come back into the story again later if you so choose. No need to ask me, just get going.
- You can do anything you want to the character. Change his whole face and skin, wreck his whole party, cause rebellions, burn villages, anything. However, it is SUGGESTED you make some effort to stay within reasonable twists and turns based on the story thus far. This does not mean radical changes are not allowed but, well, just do a good job writing about them. I really don't want to see a loyal Swadadian make an attempt on Harlaus' life with the only explanation being "And then he went bonkers."
- Take screenshots of anything important and upload those too please. If you change the character radically or some big event happens like capture or superb victory or spiffy new armor we want to see it!
- Include at the end of your post where the character ended up when you were done, you'll see an example below.
- Converting the save or exporting the character to a mod is definitely allowed. In fact, I think it'd be quite awesome to have this thread eventually show dozen's of alternate universes all stemming from one point, hence the reason I started in Native. If exporting and converting don't work then recreating the character new is fine with me.
- All the writing does not have to be good or long. If English is not your first language don't worry about, many of us suck at it anyway. I think I write well but I KNOW I write long. I'm not intending the first chapter to be the template for the rest of the AAR. Write however you want, people.
- Feel free to modify/ignore the example I've set with this first post however you want. I'm sure I'll be entertained no matter what comes out of this.
- This one is realistic saving but I don't care if someone submits one that is not.
- If you need help figuring out some of the presentation items feel free to ask. If someone were to be so kind as to write a tutorial on posting pictures and saves and what not I'll link it here.
- No cheats.
- Spend any amount of time you want with the character. Stopping in to say very generally what you are doing with the character is encouraged.
Character Particulars:
Started with: Impoverished Noble, Page, Squire, and REVENGE in Shariz.
Character Introduction:
Ogdelbur (Og-del-boor) is a capable and bitter man in his late 40's, rather old for the time. He has only suffered through his life without a single day of contentment. His father was respected as a noble but in the hard and infertile land south of Amashke that just meant he was targeted for punishment by larger clans when his village did not produce enough tribute. To pay some of the debt supposedly owed Ogdelbur was indentured to his overlords as a page and then a squire. When his time was up he returned to the village where he grew up but had seldom seen the last few years and found strangers had moved in after the original inhabitants abandoned it a year or so previous. Ogdelbur was not welcome in his home and when he tried to force the issue he was beaten and cast out. After wandering for some weeks he found the remnants of his father's clan squatting beside a stream higher in the hills where they thought they could be left alone. Due to some sense of familial duty he stayed with them and took a wife, fathered children.
However, his children all died too young for him to have grown to like them and his wife whom he never loved but also never cheated on left him in the night with a traveling goods peddler. Waking up the next morning to find his nearly 5 decades of life had amounted to nothing and that he was considered an old failure by the younger men of the village, Ogdelbur had finally had enough. When a strong young lad began to mock 'Old Og' for his inability to keep his woman home Ogdelbur stabbed him in the chest with the small knife he had been using to carve the stone figures he had taken up as a hobby. A little surprised at his own reaction but then pleased by the shock and dismay on the younger man's face, Ogdelbur calmly stood up, walked to his hut, packed the rusty sword, shield, hunting crossbow, and bolts he had stolen and stashed away while a squire, took his carvings and rode away on his swaybacked old saddle horse. Free from all that had dragged him down - family, home, decency - he finally smiled and kept on smiling even wider as he remembered the upstart mocking him then dumbly tugging on the little knife in his chest. Ogdelbur had caused misery when the world mocked him and he was quite pleased. Exercising this newfound freedom and taking revenge on a world that had only beaten him down his whole life until it finally killed him occurred to Ogdelbur as precisely the thing he would do.
Change Log: The way I am numbering the chapters is based on their timeline, how many submissions precede them in that timeline, then what order chapters with the same pedigree are submitted. Currently the tree looks like this:
A very complex one could eventually look like this:
