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Question Dramatis personae menu item?

8 years 6 days ago #1 by Katssun
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    • Would it be worth having an bare bones, Three or four sentence "Dramatis personae" listing for each of the POV characters in a given Whateley calendar year?

    Gen1Y1 Fall being mostly Team Kimba and the Outcasts; Gen1Y1 Spring/ Y2 Fall being Kayda, Lanie, and the Outcasts; and Gen 2 being "Mutant Mayhem Machine" (do they realize what being a training team means?), Lex and Nick.

    I started with Gen 2 and then wormed my way in backward. I know as I started tearing into the Gen 1 stories, I was constantly going to the Wiki. I still am, but it may be easier for newer readers to have easy access to a "Who is This?" directory under the Stories menu.
    8 years 6 days ago - 8 years 6 days ago #2 by DanZilla
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    • I like the idea... the problem is that Dramatis Personae lists are usually tied to a single story and with as many stories as we churn out it could get pretty unwieldy... especially if a person's trying to find a batch of characters JUST for the one entry that they're currently on... it works for Webcomics and serialized fiction by a single author since they're (generally) just doing a single story... regardless of how it may meander and grow.

    Having said that... there are two approaches that we can take to get something like that put together... a page (or pages in the case of breaking it down into lists for different timeframes and/or story collections) in the wiki that could have a brief on the characters with links to their actual pages...

    or an Article (articles - see above) that someone could create that we can host here on the site like we talked about with the story lists that were being created.

    Either one could be linked from this site.
    Last Edit: 8 years 6 days ago by DanZilla.
    8 years 6 days ago #3 by Valentine
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    • Katssun wrote: Would it be worth having an bare bones, Three or four sentence "Dramatis personae" listing for each of the POV characters in a given Whateley calendar year?

    Gen1Y1 Fall being mostly Team Kimba and the Outcasts; Gen1Y1 Spring/ Y2 Fall being Kayda, Lanie, and the Outcasts; and Gen 2 being "Mutant Mayhem Machine" (do they realize what being a training team means?), Lex and Nick.

    I started with Gen 2 and then wormed my way in backward. I know as I started tearing into the Gen 1 stories, I was constantly going to the Wiki. I still am, but it may be easier for newer readers to have easy access to a "Who is This?" directory under the Stories menu.


    Looking through the Wiki - Dated stories list, for the G1Y1 Fal, there are approximately 100 characters that have a POV spot in a story. This is probably incomplete.

    How do you list Eldritch/Eric Mahren? For the first half of fall he is Eric Mahren, then becomes Eldritch. For a new reader seeing that in a Dramatis personae section is a big spoiler.

    And to be honest that is what the wiki is for.
    Don't Drick and Drive.
    8 years 6 days ago #4 by Katssun
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    • Is there a difference between "main sequence" characters and side stories? Maybe that is the discerning line between Dramatis Personae characters, and 'left to the wiki' side story characters.

    My view from a newer-reader perspective, has been that "main sequence" stories build up the overall plot of the generation, and moved the timeline forward, where the side stories fleshed out the universe as a whole, or were just for fun.

    That's not to mean that a POV character can't also be a side character. There are plenty of Phase stories that are ultimately worldbuilding and not plot-moving.
    8 years 6 days ago #5 by Valentine
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    • Katssun wrote: Is there a difference between "main sequence" characters and side stories? Maybe that is the discerning line between Dramatis Personae characters, and 'left to the wiki' side story characters.

    My view from a newer-reader perspective, has been that "main sequence" stories build up the overall plot of the generation, and moved the timeline forward, where the side stories fleshed out the universe as a whole, or were just for fun.

    That's not to mean that a POV character can't also be a side character. There are plenty of Phase stories that are ultimately worldbuilding and not plot-moving.


    There are a few, but how to determine which are which. Vamp's stories don't seem like main sequence, until you tie everything together. She's a former member of The Children of the Night, which ties her to The Necromancer, which ties her to Hekate's Master. That also brings in the Bad Seeds, as they have adopted her.
    The Outcasts started off looking like goofy comic relief, and now they are mainline and going strong.
    While Folder and Reach have great solo stories that don't seem to involve the main plot, that could be misleading.
    Kayda has an incredible story, but is it plot advancing?
    Loophole's story advances the plot, but you wouldn't have guessed that from her early stories.
    Parkour Jam Hooligans looks like an unimportant story, but it introduces Rager's Night, the Dragonslayers, Eric Mahren, Aquerna, and leads into a whole lot more.

    So until we hit the end, it's hard to say what is plot moving and what isn't.
    Don't Drick and Drive.
    8 years 5 days ago #6 by Kristin Darken
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    • There's one major problem about making a distinction by 'plot advancing' because... the assumption is, ALL the characters are plot advancing. And if you don't suspect them as being such... then you've overlooked something that we included as the reason why that character exists. Does that mean everyone is going to have to the same weight of influence in the ultimate final stage big bad fight? Uh... no, of course not. Consider, for example, that an entire senior class of characters has now graduated and moved away from the center of the plotline. Another year in universe and it'll happen again... which means, if TK is meant to be the central protagonists, we created three entire years worth of classes and subplots just to build the foundation of putting Team Kimba in the spotlight.

    Of course, it could also be just the opposite. Team Kimba could be the foundation upon which we build everything that allows us to spotlight the universe saving class of freshmen who haven't even manifested yet. That the earthbreaking powers of TK, the mythos challenging abilities of Kayda's friends and the Atlantean League, and another couple hundred young students are just backstory for the ultimate story meant to be told.

    Anyway... distinguishing between who is important and who isn't for a "Spotlight" page in the now? That's a tough call. There's a lot of protagonists. And some of the most popular characters aren't even being written any more... while some of the more important are not the ones with copious fans. So, a whole lot of work for something that cannot please everyone. It can't. No matter how hard we try.

    That said... its not a new idea.

    Before we publicly released Gen 2, I did some investigating... made some offers... did some more investigating... and ultimately set the project aside. The reason being ... if we do something of this sort, it needs artwork. It needs GOOD artwork, the kind that for the 10-15 primary characters of Gen2 is going to cost more than a thousand dollars to get one good artist to do the entire series to spec the way *I* want it to look for the site. One advantage web comics have to doing a Dramatis Personae for their site is that they ARE the canon artist. If they want art tailored to certain poses and so on, they just create it. Our artists are word artists... and while we could give you nice succinct summaries of each of the characters on a 'spec' sheet, for visuals, its going to cost us.
    Fate guard you and grant you a Light to brighten your Way.
    8 years 5 days ago #7 by MageOhki
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    • Katssun wrote: Gen1Y1 Fall being mostly Team Kimba and the Outcasts; Gen1Y1 Spring/ Y2 Fall being Kayda, Lanie, and the Outcasts; and Gen 2 being "Mutant Mayhem Machine" (do they realize what being a training team means?), Lex and Nick.


    They don't. But. They will. Soon. Mwahahahahahahahahaha! And it's ALL JOE'S Fault

    (Acutally, it's mine too... hehehehe)
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