Competitive collaborative conworld - CONTINENTS BY MON 27

[zompist]

I had an idea for a group project and I thought I'd see if people are interested.

It would be a collaborative world, but with major progress dependent on competition.

The world develops in stages, something like this:
-- continent creation (continents)
-- sapient creation (species)
-- first civilizations (cultures)
-- first empires (language)
-- mature empire (language)
-- dark ages (religions)
-- renaissance (language)
-- industry (type of technology)
-- contemporary (language)
-- the glorious future (...)

At each stage, the participants work on the aspect of the world in parentheses above-- e.g. in the sapient creation stage, everyone submits a description of an intelligent species.

There is a time limit. When it's up, the participants vote on the best work. That work becomes predominant-- e.g. in the continent stage, that continent is the biggest one; in the sapient stage, that becomes the most prevalent species; in the language stages, that culture becomes the next big empire.

You never have to give up on a culture. E.g., in the "first empires" stage, Rome and Carthage are adjacent. Let's say Carthage wins the round. That means Carthage takes over Rome's territory-- but if Rome's creator wants to continue, they just work out a way to do so: Rome is a Carthaginian province, or a small foreign state, or the Romans flee and start a new state, or whatever. Or the creator could give up on Rome and start something else, or create a descendant of Carthaginian.

If someone doesn't participate for a round, their culture is assumed to stagnate; if they explicitly drop out, it either disappears or another player can take it over.

I enjoyed watching the Akana project grow, but the idea here would be to do as much conworlding as conlanging, and keep all areas of the planet advancing in sync.

(I thought of having empires be determined randomly, but I think the voting idea is more fun and hopefully makes the world more dynamic. Plus, there's the chance to have some really weird societies, if they get the votes.)

So, any takers?

[CatDoom]

This sounds amazing! I'd worry about splitting my time between this and the ongoing reconstruction game, but I frankly have way too much free time on my hands these days, so count me in!

[Lyra]

Definitely interested, can experiment with some random ideas floating in my head.

~Lyra

[KathTheDragon]

I'm interested if I can muster the time.

[communistplot]

This sounds fun, I'd be down.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Sounds interesting, I'll go for it.

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

is it possible to skip a stage... I'm not particularly fond of design a whole new race of creatures aside from humans...

though I do have an idea on a race of skeletal-looking humanoids...

[Matrix]

I think I'll participate, too.

[alassion]

I'd love to play!

[Lyra]

is it possible to skip a stage... I'm not particularly fond of design a whole new race of creatures aside from humans...

though I do have an idea on a race of skeletal-looking humanoids...

Agree with this too.
Making a whole new race is just such a complicated thing... and if we're just going to be making cheap humans knock-offs so that we don't have to invent a new IPA table, it is not worth it.

Developing cultures, human ones, will suffice for me.

~Lyra

[Ars Lande]

Sure, I'm in.

Though I'd like to leave the continent creation to more competent hands and skip this stage, my map making skills being what they are.

[Torco]

Its like Reality TV meets Collaborative Conworld!
but really, I like it! I'm in.

[Particles the Greek]

I'm not sure if I have enough free time to participate, but it should certainly be interesting to watch.

[alassion]

is it possible to skip a stage... I'm not particularly fond of design a whole new race of creatures aside from humans...

though I do have an idea on a race of skeletal-looking humanoids...

Agree with this too.
Making a whole new race is just such a complicated thing... and if we're just going to be making cheap humans knock-offs so that we don't have to invent a new IPA table, it is not worth it.

Developing cultures, human ones, will suffice for me.

~Lyra

I'd like to keep the species step. I'm sure most of the entries will be near-human or humanoid, but I'd like to see what people come up with. Even if what we vote in is as similar to humans as Zompists's Uesti, it would be nice to have a formal written description and a fleshed-out evolutionary history.

[Pressed Bunson]

I've never really done any conworlding before since I'm a noob, but this sounds like it would be good practice.

[zompist]

All right, let's do it!

The first stage is to draw a continent. Mine is below. Don't put in names, as we don't know who or what is living there yet; I'd also leave out terrain types, as you don't know where on the planet your continent will appear. Rivers are optional, but it's nice to indicate where the mountains go.

This shouldn't take terribly long, so I'll ask that you post your drawing by the end of Monday, January 27. I'll organize a vote on Tuesday.

You can skip a stage if you want and join in at a later stage.

Once voting is over, I'll design a world map. The vote winner will be the largest continent. Others will be proportionately smaller; if a drawing gets no votes, it becomes an island.

ccc-continent.jpg (87.49 KiB) Viewed 6863 times

[KathTheDragon]

Right, time to take Zompist's crash course in map-making and see if I can make anything worthwhile.

[zompist]

The Earth wants to get involved, submitting a place called Luzon, which contains an island within a lake within an island within a lake within an island. Kind of showoffy and un-natural if you ask me, Earth.

[ol bofosh]

Looks interesting, I wouldn't mind having a go.

I'll have a go at a continent, and I already have an idea for a sapient species.

I'll contribute and vote where I can.

[Lyra]

The Earth wants to get involved, submitting a place called Luzon, which contains an island within a lake within an island within a lake within an island. Kind of showoffy and un-natural if you ask me, Earth.

Pfft! I bet he can´t even stick to one concepts and keeps changing his initial sketch. What a noob.


~Lyra

[Civil War Bugle]

I rarely draw anything, let alone anything for conworlds and even more letting alone drawing on the computer, so my computer conworld drawing skills aren't great. I beg forgiveness for the quality of the resultant image. The dark areas within the landmasses are supposed to be the mountain ranges/more elevated areas.

[zompist]

Actually that's a nice style... it's like a Japanese calligrapher's map.

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

this is the best as I could make it... there is sadly no details on climate, just landmass ande mountains.

[KathTheDragon]

The idea here is that there is no preset climate. Your landmass could easily end up as a tiny island, or spanning half the globe.

[ObsequiousNewt]

What's the deadline? I might put something in if I have time...