Expanding Known Universes

[Lumeus]

Do the Persistent Worlds need to be conceptualized from scratch or can the history, lore, and canon of established universes, such as Anne McCaffrey's "The Tower and the Hive" series or the Star Wars universe, be used and then expanded upon?

[Gadreille]

That is an excellent question, and one that I do not readily have an answer to.

I don't want to just tell you one way or another without hearing some thoughts from other members and/or staff. If you, or anyone else, would like to post your opinions on the matter, please do so here. We can talk about it and decide if known worlds should or should not be allowed to be built upon within persistent worlds.

Now for my thoughts:

My initial instinct was to say, "No". This section is meant for people to create worlds kind of like known universes, but from scratch. It's meant to be a place for collaboration projects of the highest caliber.

But why not should this include known universes? Many successful role plays have been built upon known universes that have successfully expanded over time (your examples are good). If the known universe is built for role play expansion, it seems that it can only open doors to include them in this section.

However, if we did include them, I would want OOC structures to remain as detailed and specific as an original universe. That is, I would not want links to wikipedia or other established websites. Information to be used should be copied over at least, or even better, re-summarized for persistent worlds.

Please share your thoughts on the matter!

[Silvan Arrow]

Here's my two cents on the matter:

I think the main purpose of a Persistent World is to come up with a completely new story-telling universe. Our members are totally welcome to expand upon existing worlds, like Anne McCaffrey or Tolkien or anything else, in a role-play, but I don't think that should merit a world in this particular forum. For example, I'm in an Advanced Role-Play based on an early section of history in Tolkien's timeline. We have taken some liberties with adding new characters and a new town, but I would not deem that role-play appropriate for Persistent Worlds. We're just borrowing Tolkien's established world, building on it a little, and taking some creative licensing with the storytelling.

We have had quite a few role-plays building off existing video game worlds, for example, but I don't think those would be appropriate for Persistent Worlds. I think the issue would be where to draw the line. Some role-plays might be more developed to the point of relative autonomy from the "Mother World," so to speak, while others might just be alternate universe expansions.

My first instinct was also to say, "No," but I'm more open to consideration after reading Gadreille's response. After all, she and Kathryn have spearheaded a lot of the forum's creation. If we were to allow your kind of idea, Lumeus, we would need to have very clear lines as to what would be enough detail and expansion to make it a Persistent World rather than just an expansion. I also want to reiterate that Persistent Worlds was originally intended for the creation of entirely new worlds, so we would want to have a good balance of new worlds plus expanded-from-existing worlds to keep that goal intact.

[Lumeus]

As I was writing the question I was thinking, "Being able to use a known universe right now is sort of like releasing an expansion pack for a video game ten days after its launch," but I thought it might be a question others might have as well so I posted it.

[Gadreille]

Haha!

Others can feel free to voice their opinion, but as of right now, let's keep persistent worlds to original world spaces. If there is a role play based off of a known universe that wants to petition for persistent worlds, we will re-open the topic for consideration.

[Silvan Arrow]

Hahaha oh my gosh, Lumeus, I was thinking the exact same thing about expansion packs to video games! Great minds think alike, huh? Anyway, I agree with Gadreille that we should keep Persistent Worlds reserved for completely original worlds for now. However, we can absolutely re-open the topic for discussion at any time. After all, this is a completely new project, and we want our members to make use of it! So let's keep the feedback and questions coming, everyone!

[Guest]

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[Kathryn Lacey]

I've read through all of this, and I agree that because all information can be found elsewhere, it's not meant for the Persistent Worlds section. This new forum is meant to be a place where people can create original worlds in which anyone can play and have all of the necessary information.

[Kalon Ordona II]

I'm of a similar mind. Existing Universes are role-played in all the time already. If it were a cross-over, or as has been said an alternate path for an existing universe (for example, what if Sauron took back what was his?), then it would be more likely to be considered as a candidate for Persistent Worlds here at FOG. You could easily do such crossovers or alternate histories with single role-plays, so the difference would have to be overarching and compelling enough to enable a timeline's worth of possible role-plays within.

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