AGS Chain Story: BROKEN PICTURE TELEPHONE EDITION

Vince Twelve · Tue 11/05/2010 15:18:34

OK, here are the rules for this edition of the AGS Chain Story activity.

The participants will be divided into three teams. Each team will participate in three "events."

Each team will write a regular chain story, each adding 200 words. But each story will start with a sentence chosen by the first participant from a list of sentences provided by a special "celebrity" (in quotes) guest writer! These three stories will continue as normal until all participants have contributed to the stories. This is the main Chain Story Event.

While that is going on: After each participant finishes his 200 (ish) word contribution to the chain story, those 200 words are passed on to someone from another team who will see only those 200 words. That person will then have to create an image that illustrates the scene. This can be an illustration drawn on paper and scanned in. It can be an elaborate piece of photoshop art. It can be a bunch of stick men drawn with your mouse pad in paint. It can be a photo you take of people acting out the scene. Or it can be a single image or collage of images from a google image search. Anything within your skills that somewhat illustrates the 200 words you were assigned. The only rules for the creation of this image is that it can not contain any writing to help convey the story. No speech bubbles, etc. This is the Image Event.

And during all this: When an image is done, it is passed onto a member of a third team who must take that image and turn it into a 200 word contribution to a new chain story. So, the first person of this event will have just an image and will write 200 words. The second person will have the story-so-far, plus a new image and must continue the story with 200 words that relate to the image provided. The third person will again receive the story-so-far and another new image. Since the images might not relate to the story-so-far it might be a challenge and might result in some wacky stories. This is the Broken Picture Telephone Chain Story Event.

This way, each of the members of all three teams will get three turns (not necessarily coming to them in this order since they'll be shuffled randomly for each section):

1. Each member will participate in one regular chain-story, passing it down one-by-one until all members have contributed.

2. Each member will also have a turn interpreting a 200 word slice of a story from another team into an image. (Not seeing any of the rest of the stories or images, only the 200 word section they are assigned)

3. Finally, each member will have a turn with another chain story where they get the whole story so far, but their contribution must be created based on the (quite possibly) unrelated image that they receive.

Complex enough? Here's an image to help illustrate:

Again, I'll serve as the hub, so each contribution will be returned to me and I'll pas it on to the next person. People will have 24 hours to reply to me saying they've got it and are working on it, and a total of 48 hours to finish and return their submission. If someone doesn't meet the time limit, they will be skipped to keep the activity moving forward. This worked pretty well last time.

This thread will be used for discussion of the rules and any discussion about the game while it is going on. Try to keep all discussion in this thread non-spoilery regarding the contents of any of the stories or images! I will also use this thread to update you on the progress of the stories. Thanks!

Vince Twelve · Tue 11/05/2010 15:19:17

Story status updates!


Chain Story 1	Images 1	BPT Story 1
7/7	7/7	7/7

Chain Story 2	Images 2	BPT Story 2
7/7	7/7	7/7

Chain Story 3	Images 3	BPT Story 3
7/7	7/7	7/7

Overall
63/63 (100%)

Fast turnarounds:

Stupot
Dualnames (x2)!
Tuomas
Privateer Puddin' (x2)!
[Cameron]
NsMn
Jim Reed
Ascovel

Vince Twelve · Wed 12/05/2010 19:01:00

The activity has begun. The first writers have been notified and given a selection of sentences to choose from that they must use to start the story.

The starting sentences were provided by our "celebrity" guest writer: Britain's reigning "Lit Idol" (because they cancelled the competition after he won it in 2005), my father, Otis Twelve!

Dualnames · Wed 12/05/2010 20:38:32

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Wed 12/05/2010 19:01:00
The activity has begun. The first writers have been notified and given a selection of sentences to choose from that they must use to start the story.

The starting sentences were provided by our "celebrity" guest writer: Britain's reigning "Lit Idol" (because they cancelled the competition after he won it in 2005), my father, Otis Twelve!

Lol. I seriosuly didn't knew you were related!!

Vince Twelve · Thu 13/05/2010 14:27:01

~~Alert! Removed you've got about four hours to get back to me letting me know you've got your assignment! (And then 24 hours after that to complete it) Get back to me!~~ NM. He made it!

Wonkyth · Fri 14/05/2010 11:15:42

Sorry, my internet was down until just now.
Adding my bit now.

Vince Twelve · Fri 14/05/2010 11:42:34

No problm you're still within your first 24 hours!

~~However, Removed and Removed nearly aren't! Need to hear from you guys soon!1~~

Wyz · Fri 14/05/2010 19:35:38

Question for the image part: Is it possible to have more frames or is it supposed to have just one frame?

Vince Twelve · Fri 14/05/2010 19:57:27

I suppose if you want to make an animation, I would not disallow that. However, part of the fun is when they totally misinterpret your image and are forced to make up crazy ways to fit it into the story. So, whatever you want to do!

Wyz: By the way, the image in your sig is causing that authentication thing. Might want to pull that until the server issue is resolved.

Wyz · Fri 14/05/2010 21:19:56

Ow, I meant like a comic, more frames.

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Fri 14/05/2010 19:57:27
By the way, the image in your sig is causing that authentication thing. Might want to pull that until the server issue is resolved.

I don't get the messages myself, but I hope this fixes it.

Edit:
Hmm the tinyurl images also caused problems. Should be fixed now.

Atelier · Fri 14/05/2010 22:20:07

Hmm, sorry, but its still seems to be happening. $:-\$

Vince Twelve · Sun 16/05/2010 16:41:37

Things are going pretty well so far. We're coming up on 1/3 done. I've had to skip two people so far. One person got back to me in the first 24 hours and said that they wouldn't be able to meet the deadline and asked to skip them, they'll get re-shuffled in later. The other person got back to me saying that they were working and then proceeded to disappear, not answering any emails or PMs despite having been online since then.

I also have two people who are currently past their deadlines, but I haven't skipped them because they're on images which aren't holding anything up until the telephone story gets to that point. So, I've PMed them both verifying if they're still on the job.

Keep up the good work! Some interesting stories here!

Vince Twelve · Mon 17/05/2010 15:29:55

Current update: We're up to 38 percent done. Most parts are moving smoothly, but we have a few overdues here.

I have skipped Phemar twice now. I'm taking him out of the rotation unless he gets back to me, so if you talk to him, tell him to join us!

Also ~~Removed~~ and ~~Removed~~ are overdue on things that they replied to but have not completed, so they need to let me know what's up. I'm giving them both a few more hours before I lay the skip down.

There are a few people with upcoming deadlines today that hopefully they'll meet: ~~Removed~~, ~~Removed~~, ~~Removed~~ all have deadlines today! Good luck!

Vince Twelve · Wed 19/05/2010 15:58:21

A lot of people overdue right now, and I'm running out of people to skip them to.

removed Get in touch and let me know if you need some extra time!

In other news, we've hit two milestones: One story (chain story 1) is done! And we're overall at 50%. Well done!

Phemar and Andorxor are being auto-skipped unless they get back to me. If there's anyone who particularly want to go twice, let me know! Otherwise, I'm going to double some people up at random!

Wyz · Wed 19/05/2010 19:24:27

I don't mind another round

discordance · Wed 19/05/2010 19:29:15

I'd be happy to roll again.

Jim Reed · Thu 20/05/2010 13:03:32

I can double up for someone, if it's necessary, though I'm a bit busy, so please don't pick me first.

Dualnames · Thu 20/05/2010 13:11:26

I'd love to double!

Vince Twelve · Fri 21/05/2010 15:42:18

Phemar, Andorxor, and asuka_mercury are being auto-skipped unless they get back to me.

We're past the 2/3 mark. Coming up on the home stretch. Lots of interesting and weird stories! Lots of nudity!

Wyz, discordance, Jim, and Dual are on my extra-turn list. Let me know if anyone else wants in on that action. Also, if anyone who didn't sign up previously wants to join, I could throw you in to take the place of one of the perma-skipped. Let me know!

Vince Twelve · Sat 22/05/2010 20:57:16

Because of the three folks who have dropped, I've done a bit of rearranging of people and I'm going to make the third chain/pictures/telephone round 7 people long instead of 8. I'll allow the last writers on those two stories up to 400 words to make sure they have enough space to put an ending on the stories.

So, we're now over 3/4 done. Just a bit more to go. No one currently holding things up. Keep em' coming. I'll release stories as soon as all three parts are done. So groups 1 and 2 might be released soon, but 3 looks like it will still have another week-ish to go.

Yay!