Concepts

[Kassabba]

<DIV>When I write a story for these boards, I tend to mock the mechanics of the game by excentuating them to insane proportions. I am however working on something a bit more serious and the question arises, how do you translate the game mechanics into a real living breathing world?  How hard to you hold onto the original game concepts before you have to ball them up and throw them away because they are just that, game concepts.  Most games are written after the fact of the book, you could never get the true feeling of Middle Earth from playing the game.  How as writers do we then reverse that concept and move towards the 'real' world from this two dimensional prop.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'll give a for instance.  How does the construction and makup of the cities differ from what you see in the game to what you would have to present as a functioning city such as the Scale Yard. How far would you take remaking the city to something that was vibrant and realilstic, what would you change.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Ekuthh]

<P>Glad to see you're going to try a serious piece. (Although your stuff makes my sides hurt from laughing so much- dont stop with Larry, please!)</P> <P>As for me, I'll admit I have definately bent the game world around to fit my story.  Take for example my Market Day scene in East Freeport, the spot in the Commonlands where J'Lyani and Ambrosious 'picnic', my descriptions of the Arcane Academy- and the location of the House K'Larn manse itself.  None actually exist in the game world.</P> <P>So, I say... bend to your heart's content!</P>

[Renita_Serafim]

<DIV>I don't personally try to impliment game mechanics into fanfiction, it's just too impractical. My fanfictions are all canonical in regard to my characters' in-game histories, and they are referenced in in-game roleplay, but I throw game mechanics to the sewer when I'm writing them, because - lets be honest, when SOE make "a poor begger" (a level 45) higher level than Varsoon the Undying (level 37), who can treat game mechanics as anything <EM>but</EM> game mechanics? Not something to be given serious weight in a story context. Go with what works for the story.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Astralmage on <span class=date_text>07-15-2006</span> <span class=time_text>05:01 PM</span>

[Eriol]

As with the others here, I always put story over accuracy to the mechanics. While I try and keep things <i>relatively</i> close to what is found in the game, most of the time perfect parity would diminish greatly from whatever story you make, ESPECIALLY with regards to locations. Everything is FAR too "packed together" to be a real world (or even a real city), and thus "inserting" locations, expanding distances, or embellishing them is perfectly viable, and often the right writing decision to make.About all I'd say is to make something that "feels" right for combat (<b><i>always</i></b> throw hitpoints and power points out the window IMO), and put in locations wherever they are needed. Oftentimes you don't even need to be specific in where you are (anonymous forest, etc), or locations therein, but just make it "right" for the story.Hope this helps.