I tried to respond to everyone, quote by quote, but I keep getting an error. Something about not being able to post links and emails until I get 10 posts first. Anyways, I just want to say thank you to Destee for such an awesome welcome!
And thanks to Angela for breaking it down the way you did. You really nailed it.
To Gorilla and Shikamaru, as well as Destee, I'll take a shot at explaining it in more detail. Prepare to read a wall of text
Basically a scenario is conjured up and anyone interested in developing the plot would advance the plot by telling a story relevant to the scenario which revolves around their character and his or her experience(s). This could be done in first or third person, but I think it would be easier in third. As they enter the scenario, some interactions may take place with other characters. Scenarios could range from simple interactions like two characters conversing (or flirting
) over coffee, or can be more complex ones such as an intense action sequence.
A set of rules would be necessary to establish a proper etiquette for RPG gaming.
For the action aspect of RPG gameplay, rules that would prevent anyone from dictating plot would be crucial. Rules such as no auto-hitting, and selling. Auto-hitting is pretty self explanatory, and the way writers would interact together in a fight would be to write their character's actions in ways that would allow their opponent to react freely.
EX:
Scenario:
Venus and Serena get into a fight after an intense practice session.
(Scenarios could be written with more details, of course!But I've already written an entire wall's worth of text at this point so I'm going to try to keep it as brief as I can.)
Author #1:
Serena lunged forward with her tennis racket in hand, delivering a series of swift and powerful swats at Venus's face.
Author #2:
Venus rolled to the side, evading what would have been a world of pain. Stumbling back on to her feet, she mounted the tennis ball machine and responded with a flurry of green and yellow madness.
(The action goes on until someone loses or they reconcile. Losing, of course, isn't something people like to do, but being a good sport is always a good thing. There could be dialogue in there as well, but again, I was trying to keep it brief so nobody has to read an entire book.)
So yeah, both writers were able to act and react without completely dictating the outcome of the action and ruining the fun for their fellow writer. They were also able to sell themselves and their opponent. Selling is basically where you make your character look good by how you describe their actions or even what they wear. Selling other people's character(s) is pretty much the same, you make them look good in a similar manner. In the scenario above, Venus's writer sold herself by evading Serena's initial attack, but sold Serena's prowess as a fighter by mentioning that Venus evaded what would have been "a world of pain". Selling is also taking a hit. Not selling would be ignoring the other character's abilities or actions and not taking
any hits during a fight.
For normal, day-to-day type scenarios, an interaction would definitely be more concentrated on dialogue. But in these types of interactions it would help make the story more interesting to read, and write, for the writers to pay attention to the little things their character does. So if two people of the opposite sex are conversing over coffee, whoever's writing the girl could capitalize on little things that girls might do. Things like twirling their hair in a finger, dangling a sandal off the tip of the toes, or even preening. Describing little things can really bring a simple IC (In character) conversation to life and make it just as enjoyable to read and write as an action scenario.
For interactions centered around mystery and anything else, an emphasis on dialogue, plot and the usage of literary devices would be key.
At the end of the day, though, the idea is to have fun. As long as nobody is dictating or robbing others of freely expressing their character then the technicalities of literature shouldn't really matter. Nobody should have to be a "good" writer to participate.
I hope that helped!
@ Clyde: There are no hard feelings whatsoever. Thank you for the kind words!