Before I start writing...

[Cog]

Hello.


As you can probably see from my post count, I'm pretty darn new here. I've been lurking for a while, playing both CoC and TiTS, as well as reading some of the forums, but I haven't really joined the community until now. After reading up on the rules, I've actually been considering trying my hand at a couple of submissions, but I'm still confused about some of the rules.


Primarily, how much effort do I need to put in to avoid stepping on other writers' toes? Should I make absolutely certain no one else will be upset by my submission? How do I insure that whatever I write doesn't completely screw over plans for the game itself? For instance, one of my ideas is for an Anat scout hanging out on Myrellion (or Tarkus, perhaps?). I'm assuming I need to at least PM Nonesuch, as s/he seems to be the creator of the Anatae (and has already written one Anat character for Myrellion). How much further do I need to dig? I've read everything in the wiki's "writing reference" page, but are there other documents I need to be reading before I start?

 

[Magic Ted]

The easiest answer is "you don't." There isn't a lot you can do re:"plans for the game itself," as they're all pretty rough. Even if you do step on one of them, retooling something is pretty easy. As for writer's toes, all you really have to worry about is if you write content for a character specifically, not a species. So as far as thus submission goes, you're already golden. Go ham.


As for writing it, I don't know what's on the writing reference page but the event submissions forum has various gdocs available to you in a sticky. Given this isn't an encounter, you aren't mandates to have scenes for everyone. I recommend you do something at least over five thousand words in total.

 

[Wsan]

Hello. I'm a relatively new writer with 3 projects to my name, one of which is actually finished and ingame.


1) As far as stepping on other writers toes goes, it's actually really easy to not do this. When I wanted to write about Leithans I asked Savin (he wrote their codex) and when I wanted to include an anecdote about the Gabilani I asked Nonesuch (likewise). You seem to have the right idea.


2) If you think your idea is going to fuck with the lore, message someone about it.


As far as "upsetting people" - lol no. Just don't even worry about this. The forum is not only not representative of the entire playerbase (not even remotely, I'd wager) but is host to a variety of negative people with extremely strong feelings about what characters should be like. I've kind of cheated by coding my own shit to save fen/gedan most of the trouble, but they're literally the only people that matter when it comes to putting shit into the game. Everyone else is actually pretty much completely irrelevant. Obviously that doesn't mean "ignore everyone, including the helpful people" but it's worth keeping in mind.

 

[Couch]

I've kind of cheated by coding my own shit to save fen/gedan most of the trouble, but they're literally the only people that matter when it comes to putting shit into the game.

Not that it isn't an impressive feat, but I'm pretty sure Gedan has said before that doing your own coding causes more work, not less.

 

[Magic Ted]

Ye, just write and, ideally, edit your own stuff. Keep in mind the "How to not make Gedan mad" guide for what to do, like when to italicize with their scripted tools in mind. That said, you aren't going to ruffle code team. The only way you could would be to make a relatively complicated, large project and just shove it at them. Which you aren't, I can assure you. Be chill, friend.

 

[Etis]

Not that it isn't an impressive feat, but I'm pretty sure Gedan has said before that doing your own coding causes more work, not less.

Finding heads and tails on someone other's code is major headache. But it is not that bad, usually. Unless we are talking about megabytes-worth of messy code (CoC waifus... ugh...).

 

[Wsan]

Not that it isn't an impressive feat, but I'm pretty sure Gedan has said before that doing your own coding causes more work, not less.

For major projects I'm sure it would, yeah. If you're unfamiliar with TiTS' architecture and trying to implement something crazy that's just another layer of "what was the author thinking" Gedan has to figure out before she can do anything with it.

 

[Cog]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I was hoping for a response like this. I suppose I'd better get started, then!

 

[ChainedWolf]

I would advise that you plan out, and then complete, a small and simple scene first, and then add more later.


Something like an NPC that only has one scene for one gender to start, and then adding a scene for the other gender, and then another later.


You know, small steps to start.


Other then that, good luck.