The Campaign Builder's Guild

â,¬Å"Through the Looking Glass meets Pulp Fiction meets Illuminatus! meets Myst meets The Chronicles of Amber, set in a fantastic realisation of the Elizabethan era.â,¬Â

The idea is, at its essence, a setting (and do not construe this in terms of either time or place, for I hope, in time, to profane the conventions of both) wherein reality is beholden to narrative rule before physical law, and the pen is mightier than causality.

The protagonists find that the wars that ravage their nations and the capricious politics that guide them are but an arbitrary pretext.  They hear of a few unseen men, sought by many and loathed by all, whose words, written, sung and spoken, shape the course of history.  This isnâ,¬,,¢t good, but itâ,¬,,¢s made all the worse when the story starts changing and the universe (not just its history) begins to be rewritten!

But it gets stranger.

I have been dwelling upon the idea for a while now, ever since a peculiar dream with the same theme, and I have now taken it upon myself to make a roleplaying experience of it.  But I want your help!  There are a great many stories to be told in the course of this sordid adventure and their ultimate scale and complexity is such that even my overactive imagination cannot begin to conceive of them all.

What I would like from you (if you would be so magnanimous as to offer a contribution) is whatever your creative mind â,¬' at its most bizarre â,¬' can muster.  Does it have to make sense?  Not at all.  Go for broke.  A lot of my inspiration will be coming from my own hallucinatory experience (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?29066.last), and your ideas donâ,¬,,¢t have to be any more sensible.  (In fact, you might even want to refer to that thread for inspiration)

What do I want the end result to be like?  I have no idea!  I know where it begins, and I have an inkling as to where it might conclude, but that is the long and short of it.  There will be blood, butterflies, and a lot of uncomfortable laughter; the rest is yet to be seen.

I'd be absolutely thrilled to help.  Strange ideas forthcoming.

Also, are illustrations an acceptable medium for contribution?

Uh... as we all know, I'm crazy so...

The other day, I was making myself a hot cup of oatmeal (or was it grits?) in my microwave. I set the microwave to run for too long (apparently) and the stuff boiled over and made a bit of a mess. In my frustration, I exclaimed, "WHY YOU DO THAT?" To which the mug of oatmeal calmly replied, "I call it dope boy magic."

EDIT: Probably not what you're looking for. Just thought I'd share.

Quote from: 26pxGlossolalia[/size][/b][/center]

This will all make sense in the end

â,¬Å"Through the Looking Glass meets Pulp Fiction meets Illuminatus! meets Myst meets The Chronicles of Amber, set in a fantastic realisation of the Elizabethan era.â,¬Â

But it gets stranger.

[/quote]The idea is, at its essence, a setting (and do not construe this in terms of either time or place, for I hope, in time, to profane the conventions of both) wherein reality is beholden to narrative rule before physical law, and the pen is mightier than causality.[/quote]

This is interesting, I like how it lends to the idea that hallucinations might not actually be hallucinations, but just an edited typo of reality. Now that I typed that, it seems almost matrix-y.

May I suggest a "single soul" idea, where all of reality (known and unknown) is, in fact, the exact same stuff? A good basis for that is all of the "ego death" stuff from the 60's and 70's, where the Me-You ceases to exist completely (No, not specifically me and you, but the concepts behind the words).

Quote from: BeejazzThe other day, I was making myself a hot cup of oatmeal (or was it grits?) in my microwave. I set the microwave to run for too long (apparently) and the stuff boiled over and made a bit of a mess. In my frustration, I exclaimed, "WHY YOU DO THAT?" To which the mug of oatmeal calmly replied, "I call it dope boy magic."

EDIT: Probably not what you're looking for. Just thought I'd share.

May I suggest a "single soul" idea, where all of reality (known and unknown) is, in fact, the exact same stuff? A good basis for that is all of the "ego death" stuff from the 60's and 70's, where the Me-You ceases to exist completely (No, not specifically me and you, but the concepts behind the words).[/quote]That's actually not so far from what I had in mind, although I won't take that exact road on account of having already used it in Dystopia (note the Cosmology sestion of the second post).  Consider: who's writing the story of the writing of the story?  Are they in the past or future?  Perhaps utterly out of time?  What in heck is their agenda, and are they of sound mind?

Also remember that the folks shaping reality are in the same world as the protagonists.  So our intrepid heroes could track them down and persuade, intimidate, or even kill them in order to alter the course of the narrative.

Re: Who's writing the writer's story...

There's a point in Exodus where Moses argues with God against the destruction of the Jews and convinces God (I know... EPIC). Anyway, I think it was mount Sainai after the golden calf, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's got a take on this question for anyone who happens to look at it. Also, if I remember correctly, the only first-person reference to God, which is huge. Bible isn't written "I made the heavens and I made the earth." It's written "God made.." This means there may be a disticntion from the He God and the I God. Not to mention that Moses wins the argument by asking God (the I-God) to write him out of His (My?) Book. I'll see if I can find the verse and commentary if you're interested.