Moving Forward: Kupopolis Reborn's Startup

Kupopolis Related Forums Project Development
1

I am pretty certain that people have seen Travis’s post about the White Cell outline, which summarizes a major plot that he had in mind, and that we think we could use to provide backdrop for the Kupopolis revival. I’d like to keep the discussion in that thread going about what the world looks like in the aftermath of it, but I think that we have enough general basics down to discuss something else: what we want to do for the early phases of getting Kupopolis up and running. As such, this isn’t meant to be a discussion of the particulars of the dimension, but more about where we want to start writing.

As always, I have ideas! Some of them might even be good. But let’s begin with a very basic summary:

  • The Grand Army is vastly reduced in size, and the Grand Army Charter Alliance has been vastly reduced in prestige.
  • The Great Powers have been reduced in size and influence; some are worse off, some are doing okay but no longer powerhouses.
  • The Web is still a connected place with a lot of issues, but there aren’t big powerhouses to solve those issues.

My suggestion, after some thought, is that we say the White Cell conflict that led to this occurred in 52 WR, and we pick up in 55 WR. It’s a nice round – er, well, odd – number; everyone who was alive at the end of the conflict should be alive, there’s three years of flex time for anyone who wants to make characters and situations undergo some change, and we’re about ten years after many of us stopped actively writing, give or take a few.

The early stuff could be based in the city of Kupopolis. Our one rule – perhaps as flimsily enforced as any rule in Kupop is, but we can try! – is that we should start our stories there, so characters can meet and interact. I think we should have some kind of event drawing people there – maybe some kind of expo, a tournament, or something. Moreover, I want to integrate an idea that Spoon threw out: he wants to bring in a new dimension, based on FFXII and FF Tactics. I think it would be fun if we did this, but said that the initial gate there has appeared in Kupopolis… and only Kupopolis, and is something of a secret. Maybe they found the gate first, and are sending people into the city.

The procedurally generated map can come into play here, I’m thinking.

So what can we have happen early on? People could try to disrupt the expo/tournament/whatever, such as terrorists. There might be political intrigue. This kind of delves into a bigger question:

What kind of stories do we want to tell? I have ideas for my own, but I’ll let other people go first.

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Actually, Gabe, Travis and I have what we think is a solid start (sort of NOA story prompt style) for the Kupopolis Reborn story. Here are the basics:

•The story focuses on a group of characters that’ve been gathered together in the interest of doing good across the Web (sort of super hero style)
•The driving forces behind the group are Fara Somers (the Mana Knight) and the Shield… with financial backing from a young Leisha Gavalian.
•The group’s base (one of them anyway) is in a compound in the Ice Country in Mana. The group has access to a couple vehicles (including an air/space ship) and more than enough living space to accomodate people the writers think should belong.

I think Travis has concepts on the board for a main/central plot, but this structure should more than allow a lot of freedom for the characters in the group to travel, explore and respond to calls all around the Web. The structure is actually way more of a tight leash than anyone in Kupop has ever been used to, so I’m not sure how it will work in practice. But after thinking about it for a while I believe it’ll be fun to try, especially with everyone flocking back to Kupopolis after a long hiatus.

Re: FF12/FFT… I really think we should focus on the story world(s) that already exist, rather than devote time and energy to introducing and developing a brand new world. Back when Proper was operating at full clip, we often had problems with whole swaths of the story seeing a lack of activity… and with a scaled-down focus I don’t see how adding a new dimension now won’t cause similar problems.

3

It’s also worth mentioning that members of “the group” (in one draft Travis and I called them “The Light Warriors,” but I go back and forth on whether I like this name or not… actually, we more frequently call them the Kuper Heroes for want of an official name) don’t need to be limited to established, familiar faces. Kupopolis Reborn is an opportunity to create new characters who’ve been shaped by the tumult of the GA Civil War, sort of in the same way that a lot of writers who came to the story from 1997-2000 used the Great War to shape their new characters’ backstories.

4

Both ideas sound pretty solid. The Kuper Friends would definitely provide a small, structured storyline for people to dip back into, rather than dive, and I wholly agree that many of the players should be new individuals, free from the baggage of a decade of material. My concern with it would be the necessity of a lot of established history to justify their positions. Is it an origin story? Dropping into the middle of things assuming the reader already knows or can pick up quickly?

On the other hand, I really like Gabe’s. I admit I’m biased because I’d love to have some fun with Ivalice, and it’s a rich territory to go off exploring on small adventures, but I can’t argue that it wouldn’t complicate things. I’ve no experience with that in this venue, so I’ll defer to others there. Either way, I’ll probably start developing it as a setting/power for down the road with hopes to introduce it when the time is right, and if we decide to explore it sooner, great!

Maybe we could do a quick and dirty story in the City (sans the new world), and develop the other concept at the same time, if they both prove popular?

5

[quote=“Scen”]Actually, Gabe, Travis and I have what we think is a solid start (sort of NOA story prompt style) for the Kupopolis Reborn story. Here are the basics:

•The story focuses on a group of characters that’ve been gathered together in the interest of doing good across the Web (sort of super hero style)
•The driving forces behind the group are Fara Somers (the Mana Knight) and the Shield… with financial backing from a young Leisha Gavalian.
•The group’s base (one of them anyway) is in a compound in the Ice Country in Mana. The group has access to a couple vehicles (including an air/space ship) and more than enough living space to accomodate people the writers think should belong.

I think Travis has concepts on the board for a main/central plot, but this structure should more than allow a lot of freedom for the characters in the group to travel, explore and respond to calls all around the Web. The structure is actually way more of a tight leash than anyone in Kupop has ever been used to, so I’m not sure how it will work in practice. But after thinking about it for a while I believe it’ll be fun to try, especially with everyone flocking back to Kupopolis after a long hiatus. [/quote]

I think it could work, especially if we don’t bar people from writing outside of it. For instance, if I decided I wanted to do a story about, I dunno, a guy in Esper, it’s totally fine if I go write about that too; I figure this main group could serve as a fulcrum/thing that other stories could build out from and intersect with?

The leash can also be loosened in a simple way: people might form smaller teams and not every member of the group might be on every mission. I’m not sure I can really do a superhero style, but it doesn’t sound like they need to be costume-and-cape wearing superheroes.

Definitely. My plan was, loosely, Ross Payvern and Alice Halberg’s kid and a pair of Esperian knights on a mission to find someone at Alice’s behest. Alice might direct them to Leisha’s crew and toss some money their way.

I definitely see what you mean, regarding the danger of divided attentions within the story. I’d prefer it be worked into the existing set-up to minimize that. I’d like to see if it can be done, because talking to Byron over IM, it sounds like he has some ideas for it. But if people feel that it’s not workable, I’ll respect that wish.

Actually – huh. Why not both? We could have Team Farah and Shield show up in the city due to some threat, as an opening plot, and they can meet some new members there, have an awesome adventure, and the like. Matt’s idea gives a recurring structure and the critical thing to any D&D game: “Why the hell do these people stay together, anyways?”

6

I feel like the number one thing we need to avoid is ending up with everyone in their own sandboxes again. If we can introduce new locations without having them develop into individual sandboxes, I’m all for.

This is just a half developed suggestion, but perhaps we have all posts appear in the ‘elsewhere’ thread until more then two writers write something to that location. This way people can start developing a location, and as more writers develop it, it starts to appear as its own location in the forums, gets its own map and timeline, etc.

‘Elsewhere’ would literally be the sandbox until the setting grows to the point that its an established setting by multiple authors. This would also promote interaction.

7

I’m fine with 55 WR.

And I think there’s plenty of flexibility for everyone’s ideas – I love the Kuper heroes, but I was well aware that if Kupopolis Reborn ever happened, it may not be everyone’s jam. Although I had a tighter structure in mind, it was more of a personal storytelling choice, and I knew if more people then just Matt and I were interested in a Kupopolis revival, they should be allowed to tell the stories they want. I had limited myself to this crew being the main POV characters, just as in Neo I had a pretty focused arc with only six mains, and it appealed to Matt and I definitely thought it could work as a vehicle for other people who were interested…but if people were interested in doing other things, by all means, they should do those things!

In fact, part of the appeal of focusing on a smaller scale story is that it would hopefully give everyone a little more freedom.

With regards to creating new dimensions, well, ten or fifteen years ago, I was very much opposed to it. I felt like we already had a plenty big world with lots of underdeveloped territory and there was plenty of room. Now I look back on it and realize it kind of privileged writers who “got their first” – I grab a bunch of dimensions in 1996 or 97 or so, and do with them what I want virtually from scratch, but someone who comes along and wants to do the same thing in 2002 or so doesn’t get to, or has to make do with some chunks of something that no one else wanted? Back when I was trying to keep the size and scope of the story more or less constant, it sort’ve had a justification (though I was still probably wrong), but now that we’re engaging in a big reboot with many key institutions of the story in flux, what’s an extra dimension?

Spoon sounds like he has plenty of ideas and enthusiasm for his new dimension (which needs a clever name!) I do not think it is fair for me to say that I get to write stories about a girl with a magic sword trying to save the world but Spoon doesn’t get to tell his stories of a new world integrating into a bigger universe.

I’m obviously not saying that we should have the Call of Duty Dimension and the Super Mario Dimension and the Blood of the Chozo Return dimension (…at least, not as part of Kupopolis Reborn, now that I write it it seems kind of funny.) I think we should be open to people pursuing the projects and stories that interest them, and see where it leads.

(THOUGH YOU STILL CAN’T TELEPORT!!!111)

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I think that’s exactly what something like this would invite. Remember that we’re trying to veer away from the macro-plotting; integrating a whole new dimension is the epitome of macro-plotting, the kind of thing that would have been a Major Multi-post Event back in the old days. And especially given the major Web-shaking events that would have just happened as background to Kupop Reborn, how could the story going forward be about anything but this shiny new place we just found? Aryth was capital-B Big Deal when it was discovered; same for the Alter and Merge Dimensions (without which there wouldn’t have really been the big push toward imperialism that birthed the idea of the Great Powers). It’s exactly the kind of thing we have all been saying we want to take a break from for a while.

Actually, Mike, I was thinking about something you said way back when we first started jotting down ideas for revamping the site… if we’re going to be implementing this snazzy new system of post-tagging, are we even going to need threads at all? It seems like an idea that we can do away with in the new board re-design… but, given what you’ve said about how the tagging will work, it’ll probably require that people go back to the old kupoposcript method of designating the place where a post takes place (e.g. ::Albrook, Esper Dimension:: ; something uniform that the board will be able to recognize and auto-tag)

9

You are correct sir. There is a question about scalability if I remove threads from the table structure though, which would need to be investigated.

10

I think that’s exactly what something like this would invite. Remember that we’re trying to veer away from the macro-plotting; integrating a whole new dimension is the epitome of macro-plotting, the kind of thing that would have been a Major Multi-post Event back in the old days. And especially given the major Web-shaking events that would have just happened as background to Kupop Reborn, how could the story going forward be about anything but this shiny new place we just found? Aryth was capital-B Big Deal when it was discovered; same for the Alter and Merge Dimensions (without which there wouldn’t have really been the big push toward imperialism that birthed the idea of the Great Powers). It’s exactly the kind of thing we have all been saying we want to take a break from for a while.[/quote]

Unless we did the discovery ala Gabe’s suggestion of a singular, hidden gate in Kupopolis that small groups of people could explore (perhaps initially unaware of what they have discovered or with no way to return home to broadcast the news), I would prefer the dimension have been discovered during the interim, hopefully fast forwarding past those initial macro “mine mine gimme” years of expansionism that would inevitably happen among the powers. Perhaps that wouldn’t be realistic, but if I had my choice, I’d rather it just be “a thing” that is plenty open to discovery and adventure, but doesn’t dominate every Omninet headline.

[quote=“Celiose”]
With regards to creating new dimensions, well, ten or fifteen years ago, I was very much opposed to it. I felt like we already had a plenty big world with lots of underdeveloped territory and there was plenty of room. Now I look back on it and realize it kind of privileged writers who “got their first” – I grab a bunch of dimensions in 1996 or 97 or so, and do with them what I want virtually from scratch, but someone who comes along and wants to do the same thing in 2002 or so doesn’t get to, or has to make do with some chunks of something that no one else wanted? Back when I was trying to keep the size and scope of the story more or less constant, it sort’ve had a justification (though I was still probably wrong), but now that we’re engaging in a big reboot with many key institutions of the story in flux, what’s an extra dimension? [/quote]

I appreciate that perspective. I always had wanted to participate like the “core writers” did; I was fascinated by the world development and what people had done with it in so many fashions. Eventually, whether sooner or later, it’s something I would like to pursue, as the meta allows.

I’m calling it the Teleport Dimension, by the way.

11

Oh: In another thread, Tex suggested a news-ticker type thread. That’s a great idea and something we should do. All the “macro” stuff is happening, but its backgrounded, while Our Heroes are in the foreground.

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Can’t we just present it in TV screens at bars or barely payed attention to by main characters before turning the channel? Maybe even a half-glanced at newspaper headline.

13

I think this could work, too. I could see it being like a frontier area – it’s been found, but it’s poorly explored by the Web. There’s an element of the British in the Himalayas, maybe. Some people have done surveys, but a lot of people have not been there. I think that could be valuable and give a place to go?

I hear Matt’s concerns, but I think we can craft new dimensions and – well, Travis raises a really good point, and I think making it more open will be better.

We can! Here’s my reason not to:

Say Travis writes a dispatch post. Then, in separate posts, I could have my character see it and you could have yours, with different reactions. It’s not just housekeeping, but an extra thread to tie us all together?

Could we have a thing like tumblr or other systems, where I can put tags at the bottom? Maybe only preset tags. The dimensions could all get one. Then, hell, you could have a list of tags on the site – and I could go to the virtual Esper thread by clicking the Esper tag. Et cetera?

I had literally the same thought as Matt.

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Ah, sorry, I was being wholly sarcastic about only seeing need via bar TVs. It’s a tired writing trope sometimes, so I think dispatches are a great idea.

15

Oh, hahah. I wondered but such is the price of reading on mobile and waiting til I get home to comment!

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I am literally procrastinating programming this functionality at work to tell you yes, this could be done.

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Guys. Threads just lost the Great Thread Debate.

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ugh threads who needs em

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Guys. Threads just lost the Great Thread Debate.[/quote]

Haha, 1997 me is triumphant!

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The funny thing is I honestly can’t remember who was on which side of the argument anymore.