On Ridiculously Complicated Storyboarding Techniques: Frozen Skies · 1:53am May 22nd, 2015
Hello, first blog post and all... I guess it's going to be a memorable one.
Once upon a time, one anon over in /foe/ said something along the lines of how he "Liked authors expanding on their 'how I do things' sort of stuff." Well, here you go, anon. I said I'd do it, and here it is. After chapter 08 of Frozen Skies, it's about time to explain some things. Before I do, I want to acknowledge that I've been... both dreading and anticipating when this would happen. One way or another, it always had to happen before EFNW this year, so I'm glad that I at least got that last chapter done on time.
Frozen Skies is, technically, a writeup of roleplay material between myself and a group of friends up til now colloquially referred to as the "Legion of Doom." That title was far more appropriate than the one who first coined it could possibly know. That is to say, we all get together and progress as, I imagine, most online roleplay groups do. For my part, I play Snap Roll, and by now I find myself playing most of Tailwind's role as well - that wasn't always the case. She also isn't a character of my own design - Belmor, always listed first among the "editors" list at the end of every chapter, is in point of fact the Narrator/GM of our delightful set of rejects. Bernard, Tailwind and Nosedive were/are his, and he... well, narrates the adventures of our group - setting scenes where appropriate, playing "NPC's", all that. At the end of all this, I am more than willing to answer questions or give clarification. Suffice to say, he does a lot more work than he's ever been given credit for, and that changes today. We also have CptDoel - for those of you from /foe/, I'm sure some of you remember him. He plays Fade. Hell, he is Fade, or as close as can reasonably be expected - I'm told it involves sleep deprivation supplemented by heavy caffeination. Finally, we have SilentBaboon, who plays Crafter. He isn't available to comment, but it was a bit of a deliberate choice on our part - the "know-nothing stable pony" has been played by a dude who has never actually read FOE. He's often brought up questions that most of us have existed with meta knowledge for so long we wouldn't even think to ask them, and Crafter's learning curve mirrors his own to a positively eerie degree.
We use no dice, nor have established character sheets in the usual tabletop sense. We have inventories, and a general understanding of the capabilities of our varied characters. Beyond that, creativity, general assent to what is/isn't able to be done, research (you wouldn't believe - I could write a whole blog on what I've learned by combining research on bird flight with aeronautical maneuvers, with a bit of gymnastics thrown in. That'll be more apparent as we proceed, and I digress...) and simple knowledge of how things work.
Frozen Skies is the product of not one, but two military minds - Belmor has gone through the same training I have (same regiment, in fact, on top of us being roommates). In fact, as an overarching theme, the story itself is brought about by him. I take what we do from there, and ultimately re-format it, re-word it, and narrate it all from Snap's perspective (or of whoever might be the narrator at the time...). Scenes are cut, added, reworked as necessary to fit our end goal.
The difference as I see it between, say, our group and Fort Muny, for example - we're all close friends, in fact we're all from the same geographical area, but more importantly, we all started this with the desire to make it into a story. From about the equivalent of chapter four onwards, we knew we would eventually be turning this whole thing into a story. Hence the more free-form roleplay and a lack of adherence to dice - we don't trust things to fate, nor limit our characters to stat-based choices. We apply logic, and decisions. At a higher level, setting characters aside, we've also discussed at length directions in which we want to take both our individual characters and the story as a whole. Still, those are concepts, and just as I'm not necessarily privy to Doel's discussions with Belmor, he isn't necessarily privy to my own... though as the narrator character, so to speak, I probably have the least knowledge of where, specifically things are going to go. If things have seemed like a surprise to Snap, odds are it was a surprise to me at the time, too!
Which is also to say, when I've responded with "Fuck if I know," to certain questions... I legitimately don't know! But feel free to ask Belmor.
Now, an offshoot of all this is that we're all fully aware that our characters' goals don't necessarily line up. I'll speak no more on that for spoiler-based reasons, but don't for a second believe that because we're a "party," anyone is necessarily safe, or that we are particularly inclined any more than the characters themselves are to act in the interests of the party.
I've spoken heavily on this already, and I'm sure I've got some people asking: "So?"
I'll try and be brief.
This has weighed on me for some time. I've seen backlash on "roleplay writeup stories", and I've seen them dismissed as such. The primary reason I/we have waited so long was precisely for Chapter 08 to be released. I want let those eight chapters and prologue speak for me when I say that we, collectively, intend to present nothing but a fully finished, polished story that we all feel very strongly about. As our promise of quality, if you will.
When I once said that I write my character(s) through method acting, I didn't go into half the detail I could have. This whole project is very dear to me, and this announcement has always scared me because of that. But it's also excited me, because I think it could be used as an example, as a way stories can be told - and I think I've proven that stories can be told this way. For anyone who was close to me, to us, and wasn't told - I sincerely appologize for the insincerity. Doctor Ham and Tofu, especially. I love both of your stories, and I don't want to... separate myself... from that. I love you guys, what we've made, the talks we've had... none of that needs to change. Outside the editing team, there are about three incredibly patient individuals who were made aware.
I'll be around, as will Belmor and CptDoel, to answer any questions.
And on that note, I'll end with a picture drawn by PencilGuy, with the commission properly credited to the character's owner - CptDoel.
Source
Interesting,..... An RP Writeup.... Cool.
And if you don't mind me asking, IF I read a certain part correctly. What Military are you in? British, American, Russian? Those are just off the top of my head.
3176744
Canadian, actually - Reserve Armoured Reconnaissance is my branch and trade.
3177406 ahh cool.
That's a rather unique style of writing the story, it certainly creates the characters very well.
The story is going to end up a little contrived because part of the point of dice and stats is to simulate, however imperfectly, the real world and all it's vagaries. Choosing to take some broken ribs is a little different that having them happen entirely by "fate". At least that's how I would see it.
3177406
I take it that has something to do with Snap Roll and Tailwind's respective positions in the Enclave forces.
I started on my Frozen Skies sidefic Relentless, Fallout Equestria: Frozen Skies, Lifeline. decided on doing a Tailwind origin story much as I asked you.