Originally posted by Craig Ashley
I may be able to give this a whirl. If you think my skills are up to the task. I haven't really been following the Venice threads (there's just too much good stuff out there) so I may need some time to catch up. What exactly would this entail?
It's pretty straight forward, though slightly different in the case of the "guest authors".
He're a quick "what happens":
Each of the "thread" has a game file - the "teams" were done because of the number of participants, not to make it competitive - and the game is played by each participant in a doge-by-doge progression. The first person started the game and played it until his doge died. As soon as that happened, he saved the game and e-mailed the fils to the next player who plays for the life of his doge and then passes the files to the next...and so on.
Each of the players, in turn, then writes his portion of the AAR in turn. The files are usually a few doges ahead of the AAR to give people time to play and write (example, AvA passed the files on this morning and he won't post his section of the AAR until a couple of the previous doges have finished).
The instalments for the AAR can be any style, any approach...anything you like, really. The game is being played at normal/normal so it isn't crashingly difficult, and it isn't a race or anything...so it's pretty much a case of do the best you can and everyone will be thrilled. The fun is a little less about what happens in the game more about the amazing diversity of doges and writing styles.
In the case of the people who originally signed up for the project, you'll see the roster posted at the beginning of each thread (and a "coming soon" posted in the OOC thread). Each
player has about 17 years worth of rule, but that could be split up in almost any way (some of the doges have very short reigns, others have very long, others are in between).
Given the size/length of the project and people's shifting RL schedules and availability, I need to have a few "guest authors" who I can call on when one of the original players runs into an RL crisis (or disappears from the board...). What would happen for you, or any other guest author, would be that I would PM or e-mail you to let you know that I've run into a problem and asking you if you're available to play the game and then write the instalment(s) for him.
The only major difference for you would be that you'd have slightly less forewarning about when you're going to play, and I can't promise you 17 years worth of reigns. Also if nobody drops out or has a problem then I wouln't need to call on your services at all. Given the number of doges and the length of time that one of these projects takes to get to the end, the odds are incredibly slim that I wouldn't need you - several of you, actually.
With guest authors I work in a rotation, with the each person on the list getting his turn as the opportunity arises.
If you're interested, just send me a quick PM with your e-mail address or
e-mail me and I'll add you on. I've just added Prufrock451 to take the semi-emergency one that just developed, but I know that there will be further opportunities...
