Years...and time progression?

Kupopolis REBORN Reborn Discussion
1

…we’d agreed that the Space Race is 54 WR right? I know we SAID this in the chat, but I don’t see it posted anywhere.

With setting dates for White Cell from 52-54 WR.

And, as I’ve indicated elsewhere, City of Heroes starts in 43 WR, following the Defense of Egmont. (I mean, season 1 is a school year for Fara, so we go from 43-44. This makes Fara class of 47 – if she graduates on time.)

And the last few Proper posts were in or around 47-48, which means there’s some potential for “Lost Episodes” before White Cell blows everything to hell.

Other useful dates:
24 WR is the birth of GACA. (This is GACA 30th anniversary!)
27 WR is the end of the Great War.
35-36 WR was the Leviathan War.

Now, in the past, we had some in-story time progression linked to real-time, and this worked really well when we were students and had lots of time to post. But in as we entered our advanced age and grew into ancient people in our mid-twenties, this led to some awkward situations where certain characters would seem to be static for years. I’m wondering how people feel about time progression in Reborn; I can think of three options.

  1. Don’t do it. It’s 54 WR forever. This is kind of convenient, but it does make the story kind of static. It does make it easier for people who have to take a break to pick up where they leave off, though.
  2. 1:1 years. This makes bookkeeping kind of simple if we just remember “2018 is 54 WR,” but it might run into some of the same problems as the old system.
  3. Travis decides. His is the will. His is the way. All hail Travis, Timelord! As a practical matter, this would entail me (or other designated timekeeper) posting every year or so saying “hey, let’s advance the year! Any objections?” This would also require some judgement on the part of the timekeeper, to assess “oh, I think a reasonable amount of plot-related stuff has happened this year.” So if people have been busy and things have been slow we don’t awkwardly advance the year.
2

I like option three.

Maybe we say, uh, if someone wants to write in the next year, they tip the others off with a board post?

I think a formal ratio is gonna be hard. Our schedules aren’t so kind.

3

I’m good with three. All hail our resident Timelord, Tavis!

I think the continual progression of time is important for Kupopolis, the speed of time not so much.

4

I am become Xagor, the Manipulator of Time.

5

Wait, so this happens the year White Cell ends? I thought there was talk of cities rebuilding?

6

Well, the initial reason I started this post was because I couldn’t find any on-board reference to the year for the space race, and iirc we had picked 54 WR, but a lot of our really old Reborn planning posts said 55, and 55 also seemed reasonable. (I mean, it’s not GACA 30th Anniversary, but it does celebrate the end of the White Cell War and hope for a new era of Web unity.)

As long as we pick one, I don’t think it’s a big deal.

7

Ah. I was thinking somewhere between 5-10 years after White Cell ended. Enough time to have people reflect on the state of things. (And start to rebuild stuff.)

8

I’d written assuming 54. I’d like to avoid much higher than 55.

9

STOP TRYING TO MAKE IT XAGOROPOLIS, THAT HASN’T HAPPENED YET – wait, has it? when am I right now? who are you people?

10

My feeling on this is, Old Kupopolis was built on time as a linear construct, but it passed more quickly for the mortal lives we created in our little shared worlds, and more slowly for We Mighty Creators That Write And Post.
However, with tags and such, and the ability to create things like Gaiden forums and whatnot, I think we can play more fast and loose with when our posts are set. But this means we need to be extra vigilant for space-time paradoxes (aka plot inconsistencies, ret-cons, etc.).

11

I can live with 55 as a happy medium? I feel that if we’re establishing new things as the result of White Cell, we might want to give ourselves a smidge of wiggle room.

12

55 seems good, yeah. I’d rather not go too much higher since I’d built some stuff around the 54-55 date (like, characters’ ages in my Reborn plotting) and I’d need to do potentially hefty retcons on those.

Yeah, I agree; I think we should check in studiously when it’s time and be Really Careful with advances.

And if we ever do want to do a Web-wide event like the Hivans or something, we should do a lot of coordination so we don’t accidentally have Kenny Brackhaven cheerfully eating french fries in his lobbyist’s corner office in one post while Tasnica is turning into grey goo in another.

13

Wow, since Tex and Mike were thinking totally different things, I guess I’m glad we had this discussion!

I can live with 55 WR.

And I do agree with what Matt and Tex say about being careful – though this span of time does give us some freedom. (There’s like four or five years of ill-defined “stuff” that happens between the last proper posts and White Cell.)