Topics

[one completed scene]

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven stages.

Willkommen! And bienvenue! Welcome!
Fremder, étranger, stranger
Glücklich zu sehen
Je suis enchanté
Happy to see you
Bleibe, reste, stay
Willkommen! And bienvenue! Welcome!

If you haven't figured it out by now, this Fortnightly Writing Competition is all about the stage and theater.

I'm not asking for a story set in a theater-setting, though, but for you to write a play for me - well, part of one, I'm not unreasonable. 

Writing for actors is in many ways very diffferent to writing a short story: You cannot decide what exactly someone will look like, being limited by actors; you don't have the option to lead your readers into a world of its own through elaborate descriptions; you cannot show many different locations, being restricted by physical limitations of a stage, and so on.


So, this is the challange for you:

- Write a play or - more realistically - part of a play (you can add a synopsis of parts that come before or after), maybe a sketch, or something similar. It should be one completed scene (characters coming on stage and leaving again) or more.
- Remember the limitations of theater! (For this, I want you to think classical theater or amateure theater without any money or technology, so even if you could argue that nowadays video-installatons allow us to show nearly everything on stage, that's not what this topic is about.)
- Convey your story through mainly spoken language (dialogue, monologue, etc...) and obviously visible actions.
- Use stage directions as necessary. (They should be functional, not fancy.)


I haven't decided on voting categories yet, but I'll probably focus on the technical aspect a bit more than the plot aspect - that doesn't mean that you shouldn't also tell a story! As a matter of fact, a good scene advances the plot just as much as a paragraph in a short story.


That's it.

Exit, pursued by a bear.

But not before you notice the deadline of 19th June 2019.

[What is the AGS Werewolf Game:]

Sorry, it‘s a long time since I startet the last one, but now we‘re back and I invite you all to the next installment of the AGS Werewolf Game.

If you are not familiar with this game, the rest of this post should give you all information you will need to understand it and decide if you want to play.

If you are already familiar with the game, please read this post carefully nonetheless, because there might be small changes to the rules from the last rounds.

Also, there are a couple things I don‘t want to decide without the input of my players, so there are a few questions at the end for you.


What is the AGS Werewolf Game:

The AGS Werewolf Game is an unregularly played game here in the forums where we play a Werewolf/Mafia game. I assign roles to all players and the goal of the game is it to figure out who the bad guys are â€" simply put.

Available Roles:

These roles are assigned randomly once I know the players. I use generic names in this description here but might switch to more setting specific ones once the setting is decided (see below). The number of people playing one of these roles depends on the number of players.

Good Side:

Normal Population:
Ability: None
Description: The most geniric role in this game with no special abilities and no special job except finding the bad guys. This is the role most people will play.
Goal: Uncover who belongs to the Evil Side. Members of the general Population have the right to vote every day for the person to lynch and hopefully for them to eleminate players of the Evil Side that way. Members of the Population can win the game even if they themselves get killed, so as a member you might consider sacrifices for the greater good (for example, a more important Good Side Role).

Psychic:
Ability: Scan another player‘s role once every Night Phase
Description: The Psychic is the main asset of the Good Side, as he or she is the one to have the best chance to uncover members of the Evil Side. The Psychic can scan players once every Night Phase by sending a PM to the Game Master (GM, that would be me) and recieving the role (and nothing else) as an answer.
Goal: The Psychic‘s goal is to eleminate all players of the Evil Side by scanning them and then convincing the other players to lynch them. The physic is allowed to vote for lynchings him-/herself too, of course. The Physic should seek to keep his/her role secret, as he/she is a likely target for murders by the Evil Side. The rest of the Good Side should also try to protect the Psychic as much as possible. The Psychis wins with the Good Side even if he/she is dead when all Evil players are eliminated.

Doctor:
Ability: Protect one player every Night Phase, including him-/herself, but not the same player twice in a row.
Description: The Doctor sends the GM the name of one player each Night Phase to protect. A protected player cannot be killed by the Evil Side in this Night Phase. If a player is protected, nobody recieves any further information than that nobody was killed in the next Day Phase (the Evil Side will know who was protected as will the Doctor, but the GM will not officially reveal this information â€" that point wasn‘t entirely clear last time, so if you have more questions, please ask.)
Goal: The Doctor seeks to protect his own side, including him-/herself but especially the Psychic as the main player to figure out the alignment of other players. The Doctor is the main line of defence (except for subterfuge) for the Good Side.



Evil Side:

The players of the Evil Side know who the other members of their team are (while the Good Side has no such information about their own team). They will recieve this information by PM alongside their own roles once they are chosen. It is recommended, and expected, that the Evil Side players communicate with each other outside this forum thread.

Murderer:
Ability: Participate in one kill during each Night Phase; knows all other players of the Evil Side
Description: The Murderer decides on one person to kill each Night Phase, along with the other murderers and their Leader.
Goal: The Murderer‘s goal is it to reduce the Good Side so that no majarity lynch vote against the Evil Side is possible any longer, at which point the Evil Side would be able to pick the Good Side of one by one and the Evil Side has won. The Murdrer should try to appear non-threatening and as innocent as possible, with the goal that Good Side players get lynched.

Leader:
Ability: Participate in one kill during each Night Phase (and communicate this to the GM)
Description: The Leader of the murderers does not have any more abilities than the other murderers. The role exists to streamline communications to the GM. Should the Leader be lynched, another player from the group of murderers takes up the role (randomly chosen by GM).
Goal: The Leader‘s goal is the same as the other murderers‘ goal. There is no advantage or disadvantage to the Evil Side should the Leader get killed.


The exact role setup depends on the number of players and will be decided once players are registered.


Gameplay Structure and Rules:

The game can end in two ways:
The Good Side wins when all Evil players are dead.
The Evil Side wins when it is no longer possible to get a majority lynch vote against them.
(There was a situation last time where it was logically impossible for the Evil Side to win, even though the win conditon for the Good Side was not met yet (the details are complicated). In accordance with the general opinion in the discussion afterwards, such a situation will be ignored by the GM and the game will run its course. Players are, of course, allowed to speed the game up by, for example, reveal their own roles and basically giving up or even outright forfitting, but this decision is completely up to the individual players. The GM will not answer questions concerning the possibility of different outcomes of the game, as I know slightly more than everybody else and the risk to reveal information a player should not have is high.)

Important Rules:

NEVER EDIT ANY OF YOUR POSTS FOR ANY REASON! IF YOU POST AND NOTICE ANYTHING IN YOUR POST THAT YOU WISH TO CHANGE IN ANY WAY THEN YOU MUST REPOST THE CORRECTION RATHER THAN EVER EDIT AN EXISTING POST.

NEVER SHOW A SCREENSHOT OF ANY PM YOUR HAVE RECEIVED FROM THE GAME HOST OR COPY/PASTE FROM ONE OR RETYPE TEXT FROM ONE OR IN ANY OTHER WAY ABUSE THIS RULE TO PROVIDE PROOF OF YOUR ROLE, OR FOR WHATEVER OTHER REASON.

EVIL PLAYERS SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT WITH TEAM MEMBERS FIRST AND OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE MEMBER IN QUESTION BEFORE PUBLICLY OUTING THEM AS AN EVIL PLAYER AND/OR STARTING A VOTING TREND AGAINST THEM.

Spoiler

This rule exists to avoid resentment from growing within the ranks of the players in this game. It may become advantageous or even necessary at some point for the Evil players to sacrifice one or more of their own on purpose as part of their win strategy. This is known as "Throwing under the bus" in WW game terminology and is a perfectly legal move in the game. But please ask the member to be sacrificed beforehand if you plan to do this and make sure they are okay with it. The only exception would be when the player in question has gone inactive from the game and is unreachable by all other lines of communication. In this case they only have themself to blame.

Casual speculation about same-team members as being the guilty party is perfectly fine in most cases as long as the motive was for the good of the team and not intended to harm theteam's or that particular player's chances in the game. This is, in fact, usually a vital strategy in winning for the Evil team players so they do not appear solidated in the eyes of the Good players. Planning such strategies out with your team members via outside communication is strongly advised, of course. Use common sense here and all should be fine.

Jumping on a bandwagon vote already established by another non-team player against a same-team member is legal without prior consultation as there may not be time to do so, but please try to consult beforehand if at all possible, or at least apologize afterwards.

[close]

PLAYERS MAY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER VIA OUTSIDE MEANS: PM, PRIVATE GROUP FORUMS, PRIVATE IRC CHAT, FACEBOOK, TELEPHONE, CARRIER PIGEON, MENTAL TELEPATHY, OR ANY OTHER MEANS AVAILABLE. BUT PLEASE NEVER BREAK THE RULE MENTIONED ABOVE CORNCERNING DIRECT USE OF GAME HOST PMS.

PLAYERS MAY LIE TO, TRICK, DECEIVE, OR OTHERWISE BULLSHIT, OTHER PLAYERS AS PART OF THEIR STRATEGY FOR OBTAINING THEIR WIN CONDITIONS AS LONG AS DOING SO DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THE ABOVE RULES.

ONCE A PLAYER IS KILLED; HE OR SHE IS OUT OF THE GAME AND NO LONGER ALLOWED TO POST IN THIS THREAD OR COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER PLAYERS THROUGH OTHER MEANS. This is a change from the earlier rounds where we did allow „Ghosts.“

The game is played in two alternating phases:

Day Phase:

During the Day Phase every player is awake and able and allowed to post for discussion and lynching in this thread.
This thread is closed for all non-players and players who are killed are no longer allowed to post here either.
Lynch-votes need to be bolded. None bolded votes will be ignored.
Votes are not final until the Day Phase ends and can be changed until the last second. They can also be completely taken back (in that case, please bold none in your posts to make this absolutely clear.)
It is never, under any circumstances allowed to edit posts, not even for typos or to add something before someone else posts. (Yes, double posts are allowed.)

The Day Phase will be about 48 hours and end in a time frame of three hours.

During these three hours, the host may close the phase at any point but if the host runs late for any reason, players are not allowed to post after the end of the three hour time frame. (Basically, the night phase begins at the end of this time frame (even if the host is running late) or earlier.)

Day Phases may end suddenly at any point during the provided three hour time frame so get those votes in while you can. Remember that they can always be changed later if you are in time!

Once the Day Phase has ended the Lynching takes place if a majority vote on a single player has been reached.

If a majority vote has not been reached then no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.

Tied votes for the player to be lynched result in a stalemate and no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.
It is not a requirement that the a player is lynched every Day Phase.
A lynched player's role is revealed after their death.

A lynched player may no longer post in this thread. Every player is allowed to keep a „journal“ that the other players „find“ when they are killed. Every player is allowed to send a PM to the GM every Phase (Day and Night) with information he or she wants revealed in case of his/her death. The information does not have to be accurate or true. The GM will not censor this in any way or form but it is the information a killed player is allowed to give. I will only look at the last PM from any killed player that has „Journal“ in the title. Please keep such PM‘s short and remember that I need them before the player is killed because the reveal of the journal happens at the same time as the reveal of the death.

Night Phase:

During Night Phase most of the Players are asleep and nobody may post in the game thread.

It is now time for all players with Night Phase abilities to PM their choices to the GM:

The Psychic should PM the name of the player they are scanning this night.

The Doctor should PM the name of the player they are protecting this night, if any.

The Leader of the murderers should PM the name of the player the murderers will attack and kill this night. Only the Leader may do so, not the other murderer players.

Night Phase will last about 24 hours.

It is legal to PM the game host with your night action before the Night Phase starts if, for any reason, you cannot maybe be active during the next Night Phase.

Do not send more than one PM with your activities to the host. The first one sent is the action that will take place. (Except for the Journal-PM‘s where the last one sent is the one used.)

At the end of the Night Phase the game host will send out PMs to players who did private night actions such as scanning with the results. These PM‘s go out at about the same time as the wrap-up post for the Phase goes out.

Then the game host will open the next Day Phase, starting with a report on any casualties which may have occured during the night.

Any players killed during the Night Phase must immediately follow the same rules as lynched players (see above): They may no longer post in this thread and their last words should already be out.

If, at any point, the Evil Side equal or outnumbers the other players they win the game as there is no way for the other players to gain a majority vote against them for lynching choices.



Now, I think that‘s all as far as rules go. If there‘s something I missed, just ask.

There are some things you, as players, can decided:

Are there any roles not mentioned above you would like to see? Tell me with an exact description and I‘ll see if I can implement them. Just remember that this depends very much on the number of players. The more players, the more fancy roles we can use.

Would you like a role-playing game, a purely tactical game or a mixture (which is what we had last time)?

What setting would you like to play? I can‘t write every setting but I like a challange, so just let me know. If you want a purely tactical game with no setting at all, that is also possible, but, in my opinion, a bit boring. If no suggestions for settings come up, I have a spaceship in mind, for now.

Last time I used a special rule in the end of the game: The ability to lock lynch votes, which would allow players to lock their votes, which takes the ability away to change votes (other postings are still allowed) but might thereby shorten Day Phases, because they could end earlier once all players have locked their votes. You can decided to have this special rule the whole game or just during the end when there are less players or not at all. Opinions?

So, I think that‘s everything. A less technical, more atmospheric intro will be available once we have our players and have decided on a setting.

You can now sign up to the next installment of the AGS Werewolf Game!

[Time Travel]

Time Travel

Planing it or its execution, to the past or the future, by magic means or science, intentional or a freak accident...

This Fortnightly Writing Competition is all about travelling through time.

No other restrictions.

Deadline: 9. April 2019

[Choose Your Own Adventure!]

Choose Your Own Adventure!

We‘re a forum focused on adventure games and we never had this topic? We need to change that!



So, what is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story?

This is a story where the reader is asked to make choices on how the story is supposed to continue and is then send to different pages of the story. That can mean he or she takes the role of a character (the story might be told in second person) and decides things like “Do you go left or do you go right?” It could also mean he or she decides in a more general sense (“Does the avalanche kill the characters or do they survive?”) or randomness is introduced and the reader decides by â€" for example â€" throwing a dice (“Roll a dice, on a 1-5 go to page 7, while on a 6 go to page 19.”) A variant is a story that asks facts about itself, for example: “What did Timmy see to make him realize who the thief is? a tire (page 3), a coin (page 1), a dog (page 23).”

Now, that sounds a lot like a text adventure, doesn't it? Well, it basically is, with the difference that in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story the narrative element should play a larger role than the gameplay element. Endless descriptions of what a room looks like and what inventory items the player can gather or how many exits there are for him or her to leave through make sense in a game, but not so much in a story. There is, obviously, a large amount of overlap, but for this competition narrative, plot and story elements should be on the forefront of your writing intentions. Every new paragraph should advance the story in some way.

That being said, gameplay elements are allowed, including dice-roles or the creation of a character with some kinds of stats, but no outside rule-sets. Requiring the reader to have a dice ready is fine, requiring him or her to own a copy of an AD&D rule book is not. The story is supposed to stand on its own and you need to explain all gameplay elements in the text somehow.

As for the length of this, I think to properly show your ability to write a branching story, the reader should make at least two choices. Two different choices at two points in the story can lead to the same paragraph, but I want to see at least some branching.

I highly recommend not waiting and posting the whole story at once but in paragraphs in different posts (I hope the moderators don't mind!) because it makes it easier to send the reader around (use links) and because this topic requires slightly longer entries over all than usual and might seem a bit overwhelming otherwise.

The story does not have to start at the beginning or have to come to a proper ending. It might come to an end in one branch but not in another, but every choice you give the reader does require the proper answering paragraph. (Does this make sense?)

As always, you have two weeks to come up with entries, but extensions are likely to be granted, especially for a topic like that. Official deadline: 18. February 2019 (extended 24. February!)

[Happy Ending]

One year ends, a new one begins. And during this time many people also tend to celebrate one holiday or the other. Generally, it is the time to be merry, to spend it with family, to relax, to get rid of the stress of the last year.

Of course, everything goes wrong. The food burns in the oven, the car gets stuck in snow, people fight.

But then, in the very end, all is well again. In the end, we all get a Happy Ending.



Okay, maybe not like that... 


Anyway, your task for the end of the year is to write a story that maybe has a plan were everything goes wrong and nothing seems to work the way it's supposed to be but in the end, everyone (or at least some characters) do get their Happy Ending.

It doesn't have to be festive as my implied example above. That's just why I chose the topic. But you can certainly go in this direction. Lovers finally finding each other, an innocent man finally getting out of prison, an artist selling his first painting, ... It really doesn't matter. But I do want this warm, fuzzy feeling of everything is going to be good in the end.


Possible Voting Categories:

Best Character
Best Plot
Best Atmosphere
Best Writing
Best Ending


You have time untill next year! Isn't that amazing? To be more precise, deadline is 4. January 2019.

[Under Water]

Under Water

About 2/3 of our earth are water - vast oceans, smaller lakes, rivers or just little streams in the mountains. Some are underground, some open to the eye, some natural, some man-made, but all bodies of water are filled with a certain sense of mystery. We still know little about the depths of the oceans. There is a whole new world down there.

Tell us about it. Tell us about the prehistorical monsters still roaming at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, about the village that has to drown due to a new dam and hydroelectric power plant, about the civilizations of mythical figures we know nothing about or about the new high-tech submarine going for its first cruise. The main part of your stories must take place under water, but that is the only rule.

Deadline: 21 September 2018

[AGS Werewolf Game]

You are invited to a party. Unfortunately, it‘s a murder party.

Welcome to the next instance of the AGS Werewolf Game, this time set in a world inspired by Agatha Christie‘s „And then there were none“.

For that reason, some of the roles are renamed or slightly changed (It would sound a bit silly to talk about werewolves in this setting, but the gameplay stays the same):

Available Roles: (Randomly chosen once players have signed-up)

Party Roles: (formally known as Town)

The players who have party roles do not know the roles of any other players. They will only be informed by the game host via PM of their own specific randomly-determined party role.

Any player in the game is welcome to communicate with any other player via any form of outside communication (PM, group chat, IRC, facebook, telephone, facebook, etc.) but party players should probably think long and deeply before doing so... Your "trusted friend" could be a murderer!

Guest: (formally known as Villager)
Ability: None
Alignment: Good
Description: Just another Guest of the party. They have no special ability.

Goal: A guest's goal is to help eliminate all Evil alignment players from the party. A guest‘s only real tool to help do so is their daily vote for who to lynch. A guest wins the game even if killed before this goal is obtained and thus should be willing to sacrifice themself in the place of a more important Good role if such a situation arises.

The Psychic: (formally known as Seer
Ability: Scan another player's role once per night phase.
Alignment: Good
Description: Possessing special powers, the psychic may select another player to scan once per night phase. That player's role will become known to the psychic. Selection of player and scan result is done via PM with the game host.

Goal: The psychic‘s goal is to help eliminate all evil alignment players from the party. The psychic should also seek to keep their role secret from the Evil players for as long as possible as the Evil players will be searching for the psychic as their most valuable kill on their path to victory. The psychci should be very careful with whom they privately share the intel they have gathered on the Evil players and should probably only publicly reveal their role and this intel in a desperate situation or if the importance of the data outweighs the risk of their own death. The psychic wins along with the rest of the party if all Evil players are elimated from the party, even if the psychic is already dead by this point.


The Nurse: (formally known as Bodyguard, but with changes)
Ability: Protect one player per night phase.
Alignment: Good
Description: The nurse has the ability to revive a player that is attacked in a night phase Each night-phase the nurse may communicate to the game host via PM the name of the player they are protecting. If the protected player is selected to be killed that night-phase then the nurse will revive the protected player. The nurse cannot protect the same player two nights in a row but may protect him- or herself as well.

Goal: The nurse wins along with the rest of the party if all Evil players are eliminated. The bodyguard wins whether still alive at this point or not.


Scum Roles:

The players who have Scum roles all know the identity of all other scum players. This information will be given to them by the game host via PM at the start of the game.

The Scum players are strongly advised to get in touch with each other via any form of outside communication (PM, group chat, IRC, facebook, telephone, facebook, etc.) to organise their team strategy for defeating the Town...

Murderer: (formally known as Werewolf)
Ability: Participate in one nightly kill. Knows who all the other murderers and the party host are.
Alignment: Evil
Description: Every night the murderers decide together with the party host who to kill that night phase.

Goal: The murderer‘s goal is to kill all party guests. In reality this usually means reducing the party population to the point where the good players can no longer maintain a majority or tied vote against them for lynching. All murdere players win the game at this point whether alive or dead. The murderers should try their best to appear to be a non-murdery role by whatever means possible.

Party Host: (formally known as Alpha Werewolf)
Ability: Decide on and participate in one nightly kill. Knows who all the other murderers are.
Alignment: Evil
Description: Every night the murderes and the party host decide the target that they will attack and kill. This decision is communicated to the game host via PM. If the party host is ever killed (or goes inactive) a new party host is chosen from amongst the remaining murderes randomly by the game host.

Goal: The murdere‘s goal is to kill all party players. In reality this usually means reducing the town population to the point where the good players can no longer maintain a majority or tied vote against them for lynching. All werewolf players win the game at this point whether alive or dead. The werewolves should try their best to appear to be a non-werewolf role by whatever means possible.



The Role Setup will be determined once I know the number of players.


Gameplay Structure And Rules

Werewolf games have two phases: Day Phase and Night Phase.

Day Phase

During the Day Phase every guest of the party is awake and able to post discussion and votes for lynching in the thread.

People not participating in the game or players who have died are not welcome to post in the thread at all, but are encouraged to watch on as passive viewers.

Official votes for a lynch candidate should be bolded. Non-bolded 'votes' are not counted as such and ignored.

Votes are never final until the Day Phase has officially ended and may be changed at any time until then.

Changed votes must be reposted and the original post never is to be edited! Which brings us to:

IMPORTANT RULES:

NEVER EDIT ANY OF YOUR POSTS FOR ANY REASON! IF YOU POST AND NOTICE ANYTHING IN YOUR POST THAT YOU WISH TO CHANGE IN ANY WAY THEN YOU MUST REPOST THE CORRECTION RATHER THAN EVER EDIT AN EXISTING POST.

NEVER SHOW A SCREENSHOT OF ANY PM YOUR HAVE RECEIVED FROM THE GAME HOST OR COPY/PASTE FROM ONE OR RETYPE TEXT FROM ONE OR IN ANY OTHER WAY ABUSE THIS RULE TO PROVIDE PROOF OF YOUR ROLE, OR FOR WHATEVER OTHER REASON.

Spoiler

For example: Telling another player via outside communication or posting in the thread that you have important Psychic information about roles is fine, but directly quoting the PM sent from the game host from which this infromation was obtained, showing a screenshot of it, etc. is forbidden!)

[close]

EVIL PLAYERS SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT WITH TEAM MEMBERS FIRST AND OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE MEMBER IN QUESTION BEFORE PUBLICLY OUTING THEM AS AN EVIL PLAYER AND/OR STARTING A VOTING TREND AGAINST THEM.

Spoiler

This rule exists to avoid resentment from growing within the ranks of the players in this game. It may become advantageous or even necessary at some point for the Evil players to sacrifice one or more of their own on purpose as part of their win strategy. This is known as "Throwing under the bus" in WW game terminology and is a perfectly legal move in the game. But please ask the member to be sacrificed beforehand if you plan to do this and make sure they are okay with it. The only exception would be when the player in question has gone inactive from the game and is unreachable by all other lines of communication. In this case they only have themself to blame.

Casual speculation about same-team members as being the guilty party is perfectly fine in most cases as long as the motive was for the good of the team and not intended to harm the team's or that particular player's chances in the game. This is, in fact, usually a vital strategy in winning for the Evil team players so they do not appear solidated in the eyes of the Good players. Planning such strategies out with your team members via outside communication is strongly advised, of course. Use common sense here and all should be fine.

Jumping on a bandwagon vote already established by another non-team player against a same-team member is legal without prior consultation as there may not be time to do so, but please try to consult beforehand if at all possible, or at least apologize afterwards.

[close]

PLAYERS MAY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER VIA OUTSIDE MEANS: PM, PRIVATE GROUP FORUMS, PRIVATE IRC CHAT, FACEBOOK, TELEPHONE, CARRIER PIGEON, MENTAL TELEPATHY, OR ANY OTHER MEANS AVAILABLE. BUT PLEASE NEVER BREAK THE RULE MENTIONED ABOVE CORNCERNING DIRECT USE OF GAME HOST PMS.

Spoiler

In fact, outside communication is vital to the players whether they be Town or Scum, Evil or Good. Just be careful about who you talk with on the side. Trickery is allowed of course but rule-breaking shenanigans are not! Use common sense here please and, if in doubt, ask the game host first if the move you are planning is legal or not.

[close]

PLAYERS MAY LIE TO, TRICK, DECEIVE, OR OTHERWISE BULLSHIT, OTHER PLAYERS AS PART OF THEIR STRATEGY FOR OBTAINING THEIR WIN CONDITIONS AS LONG AS DOING SO DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THE ABOVE RULES.

Spoiler

Werewolf games are all about playing your cards close to your chest and/or lying your ass off depending on what your role is. I hope the game can be played at a mature and pure level here in AGS without people bringing their RL friendships into the game or taking anything back out from the game to damage such friendships. Nobody should assume a RL friend is their friend in the game, nor should anyone feel that a RL friend has hurt their feelings by tricking them in the game. Common sense advice, I know, but I have seen such things happen in this game. As long as everyone has a laugh and remains friends at the end of the day no matter what happens then the game is a success.

[close]

Phases:

Day Phase

The Day Phase will be about 48 hours and end in a time frame of three hours.

During these three hours, the host may close the phase at any point but if the host runs late for any reason, players are not allowed to post after the end of the three hour time frame. (Basically, the night phase begins at the end of this time frame (even if the host is running late) or earlier.)

Day Phases may end suddenly at any point during the provided three hour time frame so get those votes in while you can. Remember that they can always be changed later if you are in time!

Once the Day Phase has ended the Lynching takes place if a majority vote on a single player has been reached.

If a majority vote has not been reached then no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.

Tied votes for the player to be lynched result in a stalemate and no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.

It is not a requirement that the village lynch a player every Day Phase.

A lynched player's role is revealed after their death.

A lynched player may no longer post in this thread but is welcome to continue outside communication and passively follow the game progress in the thread.

For example: If the Psychic is lynched by mistake it is legal for them to PM all other players and provide their list of scanned players to date. It's just assumed that they left a journal behind to be discovered or something like that. Of course, it is more dramatic if they do so while still alive in the thread as their final words, but sometimes RL timing doesn't allow such theatrics.


Night Phase:

During Night Phase most of the village is asleep and nobody may post in the game thread.

It is now time for all players with Night Phase abilities to PM their choices to the game host:

The Psychic should PM the name of the player they are scanning this night.

The Nurse should PM the name of the player they are guarding this night, if any.

The Party Host should PM the name of the player the murderers will attack and kill this night. Only the Party Host may do so, not the other murderer players.

Night Phase will last about 24 hours.

It is legal to PM the game host with your night action before the Night Phase starts if, for any reason, you cannot maybe be active during the next Night Phase.

Do not send more than one PM with your activities to the host. The first one sent is the action that will take place. Also, do not forget to send your action in time. Not sending a PM will result in no action taking place.

At the end of the Night Phase the game host will send out PMs to players who did private night actions such as scanning with the results.

Then the game host will open the next Day Phase, starting with a report on any casualties which may have occured during the night.

Any players killed during the Night Phase must immediately follow the same rules as lynched players (see above): They may no longer post in this thread but are welcome to continue outside communication and passively follow the game progress in the thread.

If, at any point, the werewolves equal or outnumber the other players they win the game as there is no way for the other players to gain a majority vote against them for lynching choices.



Rule Changes from the previous round:

The Bodyguard role was replaced by the stronger Nurse role, who can protect a player without dying him-/herself, but cannot protect the same player twice in a row.

The Fool role was removed. It might return if enough players sign up (I‘m thinking at least twelve).



Current Phase: Sign-up

[Welcome to the second round of the AGS Werewolf Game!]

Welcome to the second round of the AGS Werewolf Game!

The werwolves have won. They reduced the last village they attacked to blood and gore. Now, they are on the loose in your town. Can you stop them?


Available Roles: (Randomly chosen once players have signed-up)

Town Roles:

The players who have Town roles do not know the roles of any other players. They will only be informed by the game host via PM of their own specific randomly-determined Town role.

Any player in the game is welcome to communicate with any other player via any form of outside communication (PM, group chat, IRC, facebook, telephone, facebook, etc.) but Town players should probably think long and deeply before doing so... Your "trusted friend" could be a wolf in sheep clothing!

Villager:
Ability: None
Alignment: Good
Description: A villager is just a normal member of the town. They have no special ability.

Goal: A villager's goal is to help eliminate all Evil alignment players from the town. A villager's only real tool to help do so is their daily vote for who to lynch. A villager wins the game even if killed before this goal is obtained and thus should be willing to sacrifice themself in the place of a more important Good role if such a situation arises.

The Seer:
Ability: Scan another player's role once per night phase.
Alignment: Good
Description: Possessing psychic powers, the seer may select another player to scan once per night phase. That player's role will become known to the seer. Selection of player and scan result is done via PM with the game host.

Goal: The seer's goal is to help eliminate all evil alignment players from the town. The seer should also seek to keep their role secret from the Evil players for as long as possible as the Evil players will be searching for the seer as their most valuable kill on their path to victory. The seer should be very careful with whom they privately share the intel they have gathered on the Evil players and should probably only publicly reveal their role and this intel in a desperate situation or if the importance of the data outweighs the risk of their own death. The seer wins along with the rest of the town if all Evil players are elimated from the town, even if the seer is already dead by this point.

The Fool:
Ability: None
Alignment: Neutral
Description: The village idiot.

Goal: The fool's goal is to get themself lynched. The fool only wins if they have been lynched. Getting killed in any other way does not count, nor can they win along with the normal town goal of eliminating all Evil players. A win by the fool does not negate any other wins in the round nor does it stop the round from continuing. The fool should try their best to somehow pose as an Evil player to hasten their lynching.

The Bodyguard:
Ability: Guard one player per night phase.
Alignment: Good
Description: The bodyguard is willing to sacrifice themself to save the life of the one they are guarding. Each night-phase the bodyguard may communicate to the game host via PM the name of the player they are guarding. If the guarded player is selected to be killed that night-phase then the bodyguard will be killed in their place and the guarded player will survive.

Goal: The bodyguard wins along with the rest of the town if all Evil players are eliminated. The bodyguard wins whether still alive at this point or not.


Scum Roles:

The players who have Scum roles all know the identity of all other scum players. This information will be given to them by the game host via PM at the start of the game.

The Scum players are strongly advised to get in touch with each other via any form of outside communication (PM, group chat, IRC, facebook, telephone, facebook, etc.) to organise their team strategy for defeating the Town...

Werewolf:
Ability: Participate in one nightly kill. Knows who all the other werewolves and alpha werewolf are.
Alignment: Evil
Description: Every night the werewolves change from human to wolf. The alpha werewolf decides the target that they will attack and kill.

Goal: The werewolves' goal is to kill all non-werewolf players. In reality this usually means reducing the town population to the point where the good players can no longer maintain a majority or tied vote against them for lynching. All werewolf players win the game at this point whether alive or dead. The werewolves should try their best to appear to be a non-werewolf role by whatever means possible.

Alpha Werewolf:
Ability: Decide on and participate in one nightly kill. Knows who all the other werewolves are.
Alignment: Evil
Description: Every night the werewolves change from human to wolf. The alpha werewolf decides the target that they will attack and kill. This decision is communicated to the game host via PM. If the alpha werewolf is ever killed (or goes inactive) a new alpha is chosen from amongst the remaining werewolves randomly by the game host.

Goal: The werewolves' goal is to kill all non-werewolf players. In reality this usually means reducing the town population to the point where the good players can no longer maintain a majority or tied vote against them for lynching. All werewolf players win the game at this point whether alive or dead. The werewolves should try their best to appear to be a non-werewolf role by whatever means possible.


(Role descriptions copied directly from Mandle's introduction of the last game.)

The Role Setup will be determined once I know the number of players (and probably with the help of Mandle, because I do this for the first time).


Gameplay Structure And Rules

Werewolf games have two phases: Day Phase and Night Phase.

Day Phase

During the Day Phase every member of the village is awake and able to post discussion and votes for lynching in the thread.

People not participating in the game or players who have died are not welcome to post in the thread at all, but are encouraged to watch on as passive viewers.

Official votes for a lynch candidate should be bolded. Non-bolded 'votes' are not counted as such and ignored.

Votes are never final until the Day Phase has officially ended and may be changed at any time until then.

Changed votes must be reposted and the original post never is to be edited! Which brings us to:

IMPORTANT RULES:

NEVER EDIT ANY OF YOUR POSTS FOR ANY REASON! IF YOU POST AND NOTICE ANYTHING IN YOUR POST THAT YOU WISH TO CHANGE IN ANY WAY THEN YOU MUST REPOST THE CORRECTION RATHER THAN EVER EDIT AN EXISTING POST.

NEVER SHOW A SCREENSHOT OF ANY PM YOUR HAVE RECEIVED FROM THE GAME HOST OR COPY/PASTE FROM ONE OR RETYPE TEXT FROM ONE OR IN ANY OTHER WAY ABUSE THIS RULE TO PROVIDE PROOF OF YOUR ROLE, OR FOR WHATEVER OTHER REASON.

Spoiler

For example: Telling another player via outside communication or posting in the thread that you have important Seer information about roles is fine, but directly quoting the PM sent from the game host from which this infromation was obtained, showing a screenshot of it, etc. is forbidden!)

[close]

EVIL PLAYERS SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT WITH TEAM MEMBERS FIRST AND OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE MEMBER IN QUESTION BEFORE PUBLICLY OUTING THEM AS AN EVIL PLAYER AND/OR STARTING A VOTING TREND AGAINST THEM.

Spoiler

This rule exists to avoid resentment from growing within the ranks of the players in this game. It may become advantageous or even necessary at some point for the Evil players to sacrifice one or more of their own on purpose as part of their win strategy. This is known as "Throwing under the bus" in WW game terminology and is a perfectly legal move in the game. But please ask the member to be sacrificed beforehand if you plan to do this and make sure they are okay with it. The only exception would be when the player in question has gone inactive from the game and is unreachable by all other lines of communication. In this case they only have themself to blame.

Casual speculation about same-team members as being the guilty party is perfectly fine in most cases as long as the motive was for the good of the team and not intended to harm the team's or that particular player's chances in the game. This is, in fact, usually a vital strategy in winning for the Evil team players so they do not appear solidated in the eyes of the Good players. Planning such strategies out with your team members via outside communication is strongly advised, of course. Use common sense here and all should be fine.

Jumping on a bandwagon vote already established by another non-team player against a same-team member is legal without prior consultation as there may not be time to do so, but please try to consult beforehand if at all possible, or at least apologize afterwards.

[close]

PLAYERS MAY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER VIA OUTSIDE MEANS: PM, PRIVATE GROUP FORUMS, PRIVATE IRC CHAT, FACEBOOK, TELEPHONE, CARRIER PIGEON, MENTAL TELEPATHY, OR ANY OTHER MEANS AVAILABLE. BUT PLEASE NEVER BREAK THE RULE MENTIONED ABOVE CORNCERNING DIRECT USE OF GAME HOST PMS.

Spoiler

In fact, outside communication is vital to the players whether they be Town or Scum, Evil or Good. Just be careful about who you talk with on the side. Trickery is allowed of course but rule-breaking shenanigans are not! Use common sense here please and, if in doubt, ask the game host first if the move you are planning is legal or not.

[close]

PLAYERS MAY LIE TO, TRICK, DECEIVE, OR OTHERWISE BULLSHIT, OTHER PLAYERS AS PART OF THEIR STRATEGY FOR OBTAINING THEIR WIN CONDITIONS AS LONG AS DOING SO DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THE ABOVE RULES.

Spoiler

Werewolf games are all about playing your cards close to your chest and/or lying your ass off depending on what your role is. I hope the game can be played at a mature and pure level here in AGS without people bringing their RL friendships into the game or taking anything back out from the game to damage such friendships. Nobody should assume a RL friend is their friend in the game, nor should anyone feel that a RL friend has hurt their feelings by tricking them in the game. Common sense advice, I know, but I have seen such things happen in this game. As long as everyone has a laugh and remains friends at the end of the day no matter what happens then the game is a success.

[close]

Phases:

Day Phase

The Day Phase will be about 48 hours and end in a time frame of three hours.

During these three hours, the host may close the phase at any point but if the host runs late for any reason, players are not allowed to post after the end of the three hour time frame. (Basically, the night phase begins at the end of this time frame (even if the host is running late) or earlier.)

The game host will post now and then to provide a general idea of the amount of time left, especially when time is growing short, but Day Phases may end suddenly at any point during the pfovided three hour time frame so get those votes in while you can. Remember that they can always be changed later if you are in time!

Once the Day Phase has ended the Lynching takes place if a majority vote on a single player has been reached.

If a majority vote has not been reached then no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.

Tied votes for the player to be lynched result in a stalemate and no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.

It is not a requirement that the village lynch a player every Day Phase.

A lynched player's role is revealed after their death.

A lynched player may no longer post in this thread but is welcome to continue outside communication and passively follow the game progress in the thread.

For example: If the Seer is lynched by mistake it is legal for them to PM all other players and provide their list of scanned players to date. It's just assumed that they left a journal behind to be discovered or something like that. Of course, it is more dramatic if they do so while still alive in the thread as their final words, but sometimes RL timing doesn't allow such theatrics.


Night Phase:

During Night Phase most of the village is asleep and nobody may post in the game thread.

It is now time for all players with Night Phase abilities to PM their choices to the game host:

The Seer should PM the name of the player they are scanning this night.

The Bodyguard should PM the name of the player they are guarding this night, if any.

The Alpha Werewolf should PM the name of the player the werewolf pack will attack and kill this night.

Night Phase will last about 24 hours or until all night action PMs have been received by the game host.

It is legal to PM the game host with your night action before the Night Phase starts if, for any reason, you cannot maybe be active during the next Night Phase.

Do not send more than one PM with your activities to the host. The first one sent is the action that will take place.

At the end of the Night Phase the game host will send out PMs to players who did private night actions such as scanning with the results.

Then the game host will open the next Day Phase, starting with a report on any casualties which may have occured during the night.

Any players killed during the Night Phase must immediately follow the same rules as lynched players (see above): They may no longer post in this thread but are welcome to continue outside communication and passively follow the game progress in the thread.

If, at any point, the werewolves equal or outnumber the other players they win the game as there is no way for the other players to gain a majority vote against them for lynching choices.

(Rules and structures copied nearly identical from Mandel's post for the last round with slight variations.)


Rule Changes from the previous round:

These changes are mentioned above, but I understand if you didn't want to read the whole thing.

It is enough to bold the name of the player to be lynched (no need to write Vote: Player Name). That's how we did it last round anyway, so I changed the rule. But only bolded names are counted as a vote.

The Day Phase lasts 48 hours and ends in a time frame of three hours. During this time, the game host may close the phase at any point but if the host is running late, the phase ends automaticlly and the night phase starts. No more posting in the thread after these three hours. Just treat it as the beginning of the night phase with me not having done the write-up yet.

If you have the ability for an action at night, only the first PM the host recieves is counted and happens. I don't think this was an issue last time, I just want to make it clear. So, think first, sent the PM then.


That's all for now. Sign-ups are open.



Current Phase: Sign-up

[Technobabble]

Technobabble

The act of describing something in a way that sounds convincing but is really just some words thrown together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RmKTAkNacw

Technobabble is not limited to science-fiction. A wizard describing magic in this way, an explorer describing an unknown religion, a teacher going over the heads of his students - there are a lot of posibilities. It is not necessarily a difficult concept that requires technobabble. Often, it is inherent in the personality of a character to use this kind of language.

Your task this time is to write a story where a character sprouts technobabble - and the reaction of other characters to it. You can make it as absurd (using words that do not really exist, for example) or as logical (focussing on difficult sentences or the lack of knowledge of other people) as possible and as you wish.

Deadline: 19th July 2018

I just casually checked the runs of RPG Limit Break

a week-long marathon of RPG speedruns (finishing console-style role playing games quickly)! RPGLB is an annual event where attendees come to perform speedruns or support our efforts to raise money for NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.

and noticed that Heroine's Quest is on their schedule for this Saturday, May 19th, 12:15 PM (they don't give a time zone, so I'm not completly sure when this is).

Apparently, there is also a bid war for the character class, that's currently at $0.00.

I thought some of you might be interested.

This thread got me thinking that there is absoluetly no way to tell what languages/translations are available for games, unless it's mentioned in the descriptions. It would be really great if this could be added at some point - on the games' pages as icons maybe and as a search function.

[Thank you for the Music!]

Thank you for the Music!

For me, writing and music are strongly connected. Music is often inspiration and - more importantly - motivation for me when I work on a story. It is also often an essential part of storytelling, though admittedly not so much in written form. But the background music of movies or games can add so much to the atmosphere of a scene - or destroy it. And in our daily lives, we may not even notice all the music we hear: on the radio while we do houshold chores, in the store when we go shopping or through the headphones of our fellow passengers on the bus.

So let's appreciate music in our writing a bit. It could be a songtext like the video above, a story about a musician, a mystic melodie that plays randomly in the head of a protagonist. While I put the topic as thanks and appreciation for music, it doesn't have to be positive. A murderer using a song to haunt his victims, for example, is also fine. But music must play an integral part in the story, preferably with descriptions of the music itself.

You have time until 14. April

[Fairy Tale]

Fairy Tale

- revamped -

Fairy Tales usually offer reinders of beautiful children's memories, even though the stories often weren't originally intended for children - something that becomes apparent when you read them. Nevertheless, I recently stumbled upon some really bad rewrites and retellings of Fairy Tales that tried to be more adult and ended up with plot holes, stupid characters, and losing everything that makes a Fairy Tale a Fairy Tale and beloved to many people.

Now, I know that you can do better.

Your quest, should you wish to embark on this adventure, is to rewrite an existing Fairy Tale. You can set it in the modern world, with all the consequences this brings with it, you can change the ending, you can straight up retell it and focus on good writing, for example using very modern language. Basically, you can do with these old stories whatever you wish, as long as the original tale is still recognizable. Someone who knows the tale should be able to say what it was based on without you telling us. Should you wish to use a lesser known Fairy Tale, then please include a link to it, or at least a summary.

Deadline: 14. February 2018

It's a busy time of the year, not just for us mere mortals but for Santa Claus as well. He has so much to do, he could never do it alone.

Get us in the holiday spirit and tell a story about someone or something that helps Santa do his job. That can be everything, from the reindeers pulling his sled to the retail workers posing as elves in the mall, or the parents and grandparents shopping for toys in the last minute, maybe even Krampus punishing misbehaving children.

Technically, you have time until 1. January, although I'm not sure how sober I'll be, so you probably have a day or two more.

[The rules:1. Finish an entry you started for a FWC in the past or choose an old topic and write a story for it.2. Follow the original rules of the topic you choose. (As applicable. I didn't check every single past topic for compatibility.)3. Let us know which topic you choose.4. Let us know how much was finished beforehand and what was written now.5. You can enter for a topic you originally administered.6. You can continue a story you already submitted, as long as it is for a different topic.]

First of all, let's get out of the way what this topic is not about: It is not about characters giving or recieving second chances, though you coud write this as well, if you follow the rest of the rules.

No, this is about me giving y'all second chance. It is about the stories y'all started for our FWC but never managed to finish for whatever reason. Maybe you ran out of time, maybe you didn't like your idea in the end, maybe you forgot about our little competition.

Now is the time to look through your old files and find all the unfinshed goodness there. Take a look at your unfinished entries and write, write, write!

Or, if you never actually entered or tried to enter the FWC before, choose one of the old topics and write a story according to these rules.

The rules:

1. Finish an entry you started for a FWC in the past or choose an old topic and write a story for it.
2. Follow the original rules of the topic you choose. (As applicable. I didn't check every single past topic for compatibility.)
3. Let us know which topic you choose.
4. Let us know how much was finished beforehand and what was written now.
5. You can enter for a topic you originally administered.
6. You can continue a story you already submitted, as long as it is for a different topic.

Here's a list of past topics, going back through 2011:

Adventure Game
Spectacle!
Redemption
Faustian Bargain
Alternative Truth
Backstabbing
Cloak and Dagger
Handicapped
Broken
Write about what you don`t know
Fate
Steampunk
Wafts of Mist
Biblical Book
Mass Disappearances
Camping
Last Will and Testament
Scarcity
Serial
Revolution!
King of Random
Write about what you know!
Time to Vote!
Abandoned Place
The Opposite of Christmas
Concreate Poetry: Festive Edition
Petty Deity
Carpentarian
Archer
Lifeboat
A Crimson Shade of Blue
Little Folk
Travel Guide
Whodunnit
Civilizations First Direct Contact
Lost in Translation
The Author Struggle
Inept Personal Ad
Pioneers!
The Incompetent King
Prison Drama
Diaries of the Zombie Apocalypse
Skeletons in the Closet
Humanarium
Absurdist Pulp Noir
Monumental Memories
Mutate
Fictional Game Review
That`s an Actual Place?
Business of Yore
Not my blue cup of Tea
Odd Couple
In the beginning...
When Art is Concieved
Happiness
Continuation Story
Broken Promise
Haunted House
Suddenly: Reality
Coersion
Rashomon Style
Robbie Burns Editon
Tv Tropes
Impossible Escape!
Cast Away!
Robot!
Invading Aliens!
Leprechaun
Dark Moon
Fanfiction
New Leaf
Happy Holidays
What if?
Spooky!
That's Criminal!
The Beach
Riddle me this
One Sentence Poem
Purple
Extras
Mythopoeia
Censored!
Road Trip!
Text Adventure!
Mad Scientist Edition
Catch Phrase!
Ghost Writing
You choose
Coffee Time!
Drabble/Mini Saga
A Flick of the Switch
The American Old West
Surreal
AGS Game Fanfiction
Next Stop: The Futur
A Light in the Dark
Horror
Transatlantic
Afterlife
Superheroes

(Mistakes likely, I didn't check every single link.)

There are some more topics here.


I'm not sure yet how to do the voting here, as it might get dufficult to compare the stories. I'll think of something, and I'm open to suggestions.

Deadline is the 5th November. As this topic is rather unusual, I'm more than willing to extand it.

P.S.: If you hoped for a Halloween theme, there are a couple in the list above.

Deadline extended: 9. Nov. 2017

A castle obscured by fog, a moor where the dead rise from the mist, ghosts and ghouls or just plain old murder. Or maybe even nothing at all but the imagination of a scared wanderer. It is up to you.

As long as there is some kind of fog or mist, or even smoke if you prefer, that gives the setting of your story a spooky or surreal atmosphere, I'm happy.

Get your stories in by the end of October 22.

[Long live the revolution!]

Hallo everyone!

Long live the revolution!

[embed=560,315]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmuHNDcXLQ[/embed]

No dictator... no invader... can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.

G'kar (Babylon 5: S 02 E 20 The Long Twilight Struggle)

This Fortnightly Writing Competition is about any kind of revolution or rebellion. It can be an oppressed population rebelling against a tyrant or a military putsch against a democratic government - or even something non-political like a couple of students rebelling against their teacher. It doesn't matter what side your "heroes" are on or if there is a "good" or "bad" side.

The only thing I don't want to see: I'm a bit sick of Trump jokes, so I'm banning all current American politics.


Please overthrow all governments until the 4. May.

[write a story about some kind of voting]

Hello everyone to our next exciting installment of the Fortnightly Writing Competition. As Azure wasn't online in over a week, I'll be your host this time.

So, did you look at the title of this post? No, don't worry, you're not too late, even though the title says it's time to vote. No, this time around, you should write a story about some kind of voting.


Ostracon, used in ancient Athens for ballots


Voting can and does happen in a lot of different places. It's not limited to politics. A jury deciding about a defendant, a group of friends discussing where to go for lunch, judges judging a talent show, our very own forum competitions - I'm sure there are countless everyday situations where a formal or casual form of voting takes place.

Your story should center around this in some way: a lawyer waiting for the verdict, a corupt politician manipulating an election or the group of friends trying a new restaurant - it's up to you.


Get your stories in for the deadline on the 24. February, so that we can do some voting in these categories:

Character: You find one or several characters really believable/captivating/magnetic/unique, etc.
Plot: The story arc was well-organized, coherent, and well-executed with appropriate pacing.
Atmosphere: This is all about feeling: did the story evoke strong feelings due to excitement/humour/intrigue/wonder/emotional intensity?
Background World: The best setting or milieu for a story; a place brought to life.
Word Choice/Style: The technical art of combining words in clever or gripping ways.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the "Recent News" box on the AGS home page. I just noticed that the last time the AGS blog (where these news are taken from) was updated was in December 2014, that is, over a year ago. So, our recent news are anything but recent.

I'm just wondering if it would maybe be a good idea to remove this box? (Make the "From the Forums" box bigger?)

Opinions?

[Hello and welcome to a brand new Fortnightly Writing Competition!]

Hello and welcome to a brand new Fortnightly Writing Competition!

This time around, we'll try something a bit different.

Concrete Poetry is a form of poetry where the visual element is as important as the words, or, as Wikipedia puts it:

Concrete, pattern, or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme, and so on.

It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has come to have distinct meaning of its own, but which shares the distinction of being poetry in which the visual elements are as important as the text.

The easiest kind of concrete poetry are texts that are arranged in the shape of the meaning of the words they use:


Apfel by Reinhard Dohl (1965)
[Apfel is german for apple; Wurm means worm.]



The most common form is probably the kind where the text is just arranged in a way to follow the shape, disregarding length of words:





A more difficult kind is where length of words and verses is more or less followed and creates the intended shape almost automaticly:


Die Trichter by Christian Morgenstern (1905)
(This one actually rhymes as well.)

[Translation found here:

The Funnels

A funnel ambles through the night. [it should be two funnels; it's still a good translation...]
Within its body, moonbeams white
converge as they
descend upon
its forest
pathway
and
so
on]
(Sorry for the formating of the translation. This should also give you a hint that it's better to post pictures in this round.)



And last but not least, there's the most abstract kind where words don't seem to exist anymore:


Fisches Nachtgesang (Night Song of Fish) by Christian Morgenstern (1905)




So, I think you can imagine why I showed you all this? That's right! This time around I want you to write a piece of concrete poetry. Whether it is just a single word or a whole story, a poem with rhymes and rhythm or no words in the classic sense at all - that's all up to you, as long as the connection between the words and the shape is strong (and don't write a text and add a picture to it, that's not what this is about). And because we're in the festive season, it should have something to do with this: a snowflake, a christmas tree, a candle, etc. - it's up to you.

(As mentioned above, it's probably best to post all entries as pictures, so that the forum doesn't screw up the formating.)


The voting categories will reflect this unusual kind of poetry. We'll have the following:

Text: If you remove all visual elements, does the text still mean something? Is it well written, in a good style? Does it tell a story?
Shape: If you remove the language element, is it a good and interesting picture? How well is the artistic execution? This is the category for all visual elements.
Correlation: How well do text and shape fit together? Does the text add to the picture? Does the picture add to the text?

As you can see, writing and art are equally important this time around.


I hope I didn't scare you off and see a lot of poems in this Fortnightly Writing Competition - it's easier than you might think.

Deadline: 14. December.

Happy writing!