With almost 50% of the vote have "Dangers of the Wasteland" won the vote and have become the theme for our 4.500 Member celebration!

And here is how the 4.5K member celebration will go down!

*26 different writers will each write a short story with the common theme "Dangers of the Wasteland

*As it is an ABC will each different story/danger have to start with a different letter.

*Each writer that sign up will be getting a letter at random.

*As this will be a collection of short stories would we like if the stories can be kept under 10K words.

*As we would like all of our members to enjoy this project, both as readers and writers, would we like for the stories to be try to keep it as PEGI12 as possible, but if you wanna push it to PEGI 16 will we not lift an eyebrow.

*When you are done with your short story should you send a PM with a link to your story to either G-man64 or I, and we will ad it to the collection where the short story will be credited to you, so there are no reason to post it to Fimfic unless you want it to be uploaded in here twice.

From G-man64 and I, happy 4.5K members, and happy writing!

And please ask if you have any questions. There are no bad questions, only bad answers after all!

The people that have signed up so far [ 23/26 ]
G-man64
Lofty Withers
Base Anonymous
WeaponPrime
storm128
thecyanidefairy
thatguyvex
Crazyperson
Dice Warwick
FreakSheet
Robipony
TundraStanza
Not Professor Kokonoe
nyxOs
Chaotic Flier
BroodmareOfImgur
Salted Pingas
ValiantKnight
Scaramouch
JaPon-ii
MisterClacky
A_Bloodthirsty_Unicorn56
BleedingSequine

6918068

As we would like all of our members to enjoy this project, both as readers and writers, would we like for the stories to be kept PG-13

WHAT?! I thought you wanted something related to Insanity's Flight. How can I let my demented side run free under these restrictions?

6918204
See it as a challenge! But yea... I do properly need to go back and change the wording a little. What I meant is "try to keep it as PG-13 as possible", so bad stuff A-okay, detailed gore, no go

I will also add that if anyone has artistic talent a cover would be appreciated.

Doesn’t need to be anything special, I mean the cover for the original was a last minute addition (literally before it was posted) so in all honesty probably a ten or fifteen minute photoshop job.

Just something to let people know it’s there.

6918209
Sort of makes me think what I had in mind wouldn't really work then :/.

I’ll try my best! It’s been a while since I wrote anything myself.

6918275
Join the club.

6918068
How violent is it allow to be? Also when is it due?

6918561
It hasn’t even started yet (we need everyone so that the letters can be distributed (random selection)) and just try and make it acceptable, like doom said don’t go overboard on details.

6918242
I am sorry to hear that, but as said would we like as many as possible to enjoy the stories.

6918275
Thats the spirit!

6918561
Think of the movies. Chop people up, but do it kinda off screen with no details and cut down on the blood splatter and you are A-okay. All in all, so long as it isn't over the top would we be happy.

I'll bight, I am in-between stories right now, so if iy's okay, I'll join in.

6918598
YOINK! You are hereby drafted for the big community project!

6918209
*Sigh* fine. I'll keep it clean....ish

*puts away rusty butter knives*

*pulls out clean, sterile butter knives*

Perfect

6918606
cool

6918068 Does anyone have the letter, M, yet?

6924682
No letters have been given to anyone so far since we are waiting for all 26 writers to sign up before we give any letter out.

6924719 Okay. I can't necessarily guarantee that I will be able to participate, however I do have a couple story ideas, one for the letter M and one for S.

Edit: though I suppose the story for M could also go for P.

Oh, why not. Go ahead and sign me up.

So, how many people are signed up now?

6925206

Please re-read the whole tread to understand what you have signed up to a bit better, all of your question so far have been answered in the two first posts.

6918068
Safe to assume if they're in this group they have read the original FoE and we don't need to keep it PG-13.

6925206
12

6925609
... Good point, but it was G-man who said it, and honestly do I approve of it. As said do we not mind a bit of violence or swearing, but we do not need to go to extremes

6925619
If it'd help, I could PM either you or Gman on what my short story would of been and see how it'd work.

6925747
A. You are not signed up.

B. You do not know what your letter is yet...

6918068
I'd like to sign up for this, if that's alright.

6925808
Yoink! You have hereby been drafted into the ABC army! Make us proud!

>And please no porn, there are nothing dangerous about sex after all
#size_difference(I could add more tags but then my post won't be PG-13)
I haven't even thought about other not-really-pg-13 stuff, like #### and #####.

>*As we would like all of our members to enjoy this project, both as readers and writers, would we like for the stories to be try to keep it as PG-13 as possible.
That's honestly weird as hell. Fallout: Plushie stories? With ketchup blood and NERF guns? Also healing potions are cough mixtures. Yes, that' sar... *thinks* Hmm...

>Follow up explanation: Bad stuff A-okay, detailed gore, no go. Swears, yes please, but mild ones please.
*idly imagines detailed description of vomiting and drug/alcohol abuse* Sorry, but those guidelines a bit... weird? I mean, they are not intuitive enough, not for me anyway.

UPD:
>*As we would like all of our members to enjoy this project, both as readers and writers, would we like for the stories to be try to keep it as PG-13 as possible.
*puts on a t-shirt with "I'm a member of this community and I do not approve of this squick" written on it*
Or does only *majority* of community counts?

>Follow up explanation: Bad stuff A-okay, detailed gore, no go. Swears, yes please, but mild ones please.
Bad stuff? So, I'm simply describing a pleasant smell of meat cooked... by a flamethrower? How about some perfectly good violins applied to folks? How about non-consensual bed wrestling? How about our glorious lord and savior IMP with all of its effects(which is a danger)?

Am I being sarcastic? YES. Do I have a reason? YES. Let me sum my reason up:
Fallout 1: Mature, 17+
Fallout 2: Mature, 17+
Fallout 3: Mature, 17+
Fallout New Vegas: Mature, 17+
Fallout 4: Mature, 17+
Fallout Shelter: Teen
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel: Mature, 17+
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel: Mature, 17+
(Yes, I went to ESRB site and looked it up)

So what was the reason except "for kids!" that brought that restriction up?

6926027
You seem to be confusing PG-13 with G.

6926192
Yes, I maybe exaggerating quite a lot(and I'm not too keen on ESRB ratings to be honest), of course, but it doesn't stop me from being utterly confused in a bad way about this decision. Normally I prefer to stay silent.
Robocop, the original one, was still M, and there wasn't that much gore if we discount a scene with poor Murphy being shot repeatedly with shotguns.
UPD: Or, right, I forgot scene with the acid, my bad.
UPD2: I mean, if you know of Fallout and you've played Fallout... you're not under PG-13. Or you shouldn't be playing it. Or am I missing something?

6926197
Robocop is a strange case, and if it were rated today, would probably land in the R category due to language. If not for the language, even the un-cut version with all the violence would probably be a decent candidate for PG-13, though I could see the violence pushing it into R; with the cut-down scenes, it's an easy PG-13.

But on the main subject: personally, I think it's a little silly to restrict the rating below that of the original, but when we're dealing with a bunch of short stories, I can see a lot of value in pushing the authors to focus on storytelling instead of sex and violence, so I don't really have any real objection.

I think I want to give this a shot.

6926223
ESRB and people are weird.

Yes, I agree, and that is exactly my point. Yet, I also think that limiting stories in such a way is just... silly, really. It's like you think that writers going to get overboard with graphical description and ran out of wordcount. I just can't see the reason for such a limit. I mean, even if take myths they could get rather brutal in their descriptions. And, once more, it is doubly weird for me because of "dangers" topic. If it would've been anything else I would not question it, probably.

6926224
*places a syringe in Nyxie's outstretched hoof*

I do think I’ll give this a try, given I am sorta wanting to get back into writing again and this sounds fun.

6925525 I reread the thread. I think I'll give it a shot. I posted a couple threads in a few other groups supporting this event, so I hope we will see some more participants soon.

6926332 Awesome!

6926027
I keep forgetting how USA is with ratings compared to Europa, and I must admit that I don't even know what the rules for "PG13" even entails... I should properly have looked that up before using the terms.

Well let me put it like this then, we are gonna use PEGI instead. I would like an aim for PEGI 12, but if people wanna push the envolope and go PEGI 16 would we not raise any eyebrows.

What kind of games people play is up to themselves, and if they are minors their parents, but we as a group are gonna strive for a teen friendly environment, which can also be seen in all of the stories there actually are Teen instead of Mature... Could be fun to do a bit of research on that one.

So yea, use your flamethrower, but no in depth detail of the smell. Drink all of the alcohol you want, but don't go driving. Use, but don't abuse.

Beside, see it as a challenge as we have mentioned before, can you tell about the dangers of the wasteland without going all grimdark murder hobo on our asses? We all know of the raiders that rape and flay our skin, and the hellhounds which claws seek deep within, but what about the smaller dangers there honestly are way more likely to kill you in a wasteland setting?

6926224 6926332 6926477
YOINK! You are now all drafted into the ABC army!

6926592
First of all, thank you, because now it looks a lot better than with your short explanation given.

>but we as a group are gonna strive for a teen friendly environment,
I don't understand this inclination, but you do you.

>Could be fun to do a bit of research on that one.
On what exactly?

>but what about the smaller dangers there honestly are way more likely to kill you in a wasteland setting?
*thinks and nods* Got another question, however:
>*Each writer that sign up will be getting a letter at random.
Each writer. Is it restricted to just one writer per letter or there could be a team of two writers or writer+editor?

6926660
Look into where the limits are for the ESRB system. Would be fun to look at the big differences between USA and Europa when it Comes to stuff like that.

I am on my phone right now, so let me put it like this, one person sign up, and he/she can themselves choose how the story gets made

I am so excited. Now we just need 9 more people.

6926660
6926667
6918215

I'm curious about editing too. I assume we'll have a staff editor or editor-in-chief to help authors and enforce standards. Who is on staff for mandatory copy-editing? Who is exercising overall editorial discretion as submissions editor? I assume G-man or Doomande, or is it a board? Will we have an editor pool to support authors, or are we on our own for finding developmental editors?

What about pre-readers?

I can assist with editing or pre-reading, but my availability is currently limited due to prior commitments.

6926687
We would like the short stories to be as complete as they can be when they are submitted, but I will go over them and do some editorial work with the stories there are submitted

6926698
Hey Doom, got a question. So I've been reading the first ABCs of FoE to get a feel for what the average length and pace of an entry should be. I was looking at the titles in that anthology and I'm curious, what are the rules/expectations for our stories in this one, since it has a theme this time around? Does the title of the story have to be specifically that story's subject?

For instance, say I get the letter R. If I wanted to tell a story about the hazards of radiation, would my title have to be Radiation, or could it be something such as, for example, Red Means Run? Or if I got assigned D and named the story something like Decay, would that allow me to base it on radiation? Or would it have to be something like the dangers of ruins falling apart or old food or mold, whatever the title appears to suggest?

I hope this question makes sense. Just that the original story has Robots for R, but then for F the title is Forget Me Not. How specific does the title in this collection have to be?

6927604
The original idea had been a single central theme, but I won’t complain if you just use it as the start as long as it’s an actual word (like not using T to start with The).

6927680
Okie dokie. Also, a potential issue is that several people take the same topic, for instance, five stories about radiation, five about raiders, five about disease or famine or what have you. Is there going to be a sort of group discussion where we can assure we aren't all inadvertently writing the same ideas, or will we just be hoping it doesn't come to that?

6927739
Even if that happened it would still be in the spirit of the project.

The same story told through different people’s eyes in the end has a different result, heck I’ve proposed a group project where everyone has the same prompt and just tells a story how they see it.

I don’t think it’s too much of an issue since there’s so many different dangers, but even then they’ll be different stories.

6927750
Copy that.

I wouldn't mind giving this a whirl! Do I just say "sign me up!" here or should I formally contact someone?

6927882 Just saying sign me up seems to work.

6927882
You are hereby drafted into the ABC army!

6928038
Woohoo!