Front Page DeepCourtAndHighCourt

A setting development game for Lords of Gossamer & Shadow using TheScholarsGame. DeepCourtAndHighCourt is confined largely to a single Gossamer World. We may later run ScholarsOfTheGrandCarta to explore the Grand Stair.

Status

Late September 2014: Complete after Turn EIGHT (letters WXYZ). See CODA.

For the game entries, see CourtEntryList.

CODA (Concluding the Game)

For each player (CourtPlayer):

To wrap up the game, have another player (or other players) choose two or three pages as a prompting set of images or themes. Choose one or more of the prompting pages as a basis, write a scene in the world with your player character involved in something related. See LilyQuillpot's character page for an example.

Some observations in CourtOrganizerObservations.

Premise

The Deep Court and the High Court are the contrasting poles of a major, influential Gossamer World. The Deep Court, like Roger Zelazny's Rebma in The Chronicles of Amber, is the capital of an undersea realm of mythic glamour and splendour, where visitors from the upper world can breathe via the magic of its living waters, and a trio of sovereigns rule over all upon and under the seas from their palace perched on the edge of a sunless abyss. The High Court rules over the land and the skies from a palace hewn from the side of a mountain, where aerial knights patrol and skyships navigate from storm to storm, while the Harmony Walkers tread the paths of pilgrimage and perfection from the Chord Shrines to the Labyrinth Plateau.

Setup

Each Player takes a Character who has the role of a supporting member of the Deep Court or the High Court.

When creating a Character page, tag it by including CourtPlayer[2] at the end of the text. Each player will start with one character. See CourtPlayer for some sample character pages written by the organizer: LilyQuillpot, PythiaTwentyThree, AlfredReadyman,

The organizer's characters will author seed pages, and may contribute additional main entry pages or comments in the name of these characters.

Rules of Play

For DeepCourtAndHighCourt, the organizer will provide several seed entries before play begins, including descriptions of the sovereigns and major races, and may include unwritten page references. This will give the game a little more shape than the standard Lexicon game which starts with a premise only.

Use Philmagpie's rules for Main Entry and Footnote as described in TheScholarsGame.

Taking Turns

Use the Telephone Pad variation, where the Main Entry letters are divided into 8 turns:

  1. ABC
  2. DEF
  3. GHI
  4. JKL
  5. MNO
  6. PQRS
  7. TUV
  8. WXYZ

Each player chooses a letter within the current turn's set. The game may have more than one entry corresponding to a given letter, and is not required to have an entry for every letter.

To add a new Main Entry page, use the instructions in HowToWiki to add its name to the CourtEntryList page, then save the CourtEntryList with your new page name and follow the link to get an edit form for creating the new page. After the first turn, there is likely a PhantomPage link created by another player that you should follow to create a page. See below for more details on choosing a topic for a new page.

When creating an Entry page, tag it by including CourtEntry[1] at the end of the text. Also tag it with the appropriate CourtCategory. Refer to DeepCourt or HighCourt as an example entry.

Main Entry Categories for DeepCourtAndHighCourt, and some notional entry titles:

  1. People CourtCategoryPeople WyvernKnights, MyriapodiaPeople, SelkieKingProteus.
  2. Places CourtCategoryPlace DryGarden, MountBlitzen, ShipwreckCoast.
  3. Events CourtCategoryEvent GreatUmbralStorm, StairRatInvasion
  4. Objects, Ideas, Abstracts CourtCategoryOther HarmonyPilgrimage, LightningHammer, LevitationGas, GreatPowerBalance.

Also extracted as CourtCategory. Do your best to rotate through all categories before starting another.

After making a Main Entry, make a short list containing the name of your new entry and any names of pages you've referred to which haven't yet been created. Copy all of these page names to the CourtEntryList page, mentioning the page you've referenced them from.

Choosing a Main Entry Topic

On the first turn, players may freely choose a topic name starting with A, B, or C for their Main Entry page.

After the first turn, players must check the CourtEntryList page. If there are named but not yet created pages (PhantomPages) listed among that turn's letters, the player must choose a phantom page which another player created as their next main entry topic. Only if there are no suitable phantom pages for that turn's letters may a player make up a new Main Entry topic name.

First turn:

  1. Make up a topic starting with A, B, or C in any category, in the form of a WikiWord like DeepCourt.
  2. Add its name to the CourtEntryList and follow the link to create the page.
  3. Follow A, B of the AbcRules, referring to two not-yet-existing page names later in the alphabet.
  4. Add these page names to the CourtEntryList, mentioning the page name where they were referred to.

Turns 2-5:
  1. Choose a PhantomPage link from the CourtEntryList, provided: (a) It's in the letter group for this turn; (b) Someone else created it; (c) It's a different CourtCategory than your last main entry. Otherwise make up a topic.
  2. For a new page, add its name to the CourtEntryList and save it to create a new page link.
  3. Follow the link to create the page.
  4. Follow A, B, C of the AbcRules, referring to two not-yet-existing page names later in the alphabet and one entry earlier in the alphabet.
  5. Add the new page names to the CourtEntryList, mentioning the page name where they were referred to.

Turns 6-7:
  1. Like Turns 2-5, but only add one new PhantomPage per main entry (a B-prime rule).

Turn 8:

  1. Choose a PhantomPage link from the CourtEntryList, provided: (a) It's in the letter group for this turn; (b) Someone else created it; (c) It's a different CourtCategory than your last main entry. Otherwise make up a topic.
  2. For a new page, add its name to the CourtEntryList and save it to create a new page link.
  3. Follow the link to create the page.
  4. Follow A, C of the AbcRules, referring to at least one entry earlier in the alphabet.

Falling Behind

Players are not obliged to contribute every turn. The organizer may supply commentary from the sample characters and declare the next turn, opening up the next set of letters to main entries.

Getting Ahead of the Game

If you're enthusiastic about contributing extra entries, others may not have a chance to add commentary. The extra contributions are probably fine, but may impair interaction among contributors.

Player Pages

See CourtPlayer. Examples: AlfredReadyman, PythiaTwentyThree, LilyQuillpot.

Main Entry Pages

See CourtEntryList.


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(last edited September 28, 2014)
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