The Account of Adren the Bard (Discussion)

[Pine]

(More to come in this space)

[Pine]

Current Status

Hiatus
Expected to resume in late September or early October.

[Pine]

Welcome, friends!

This is not a traditional Mish Mash game, per se, but rather a collaboratively-told story. You, the readers, will have input at nearly every point in the tale, able to make major decisions for the protagonists and guide their fate. Two to three times a week, depending on my schedule, I will post updates to the story, as well as a link to a Google form with potential options. Please feel free to discuss with your fellow readers your options, or create your own. If you come up with a novel solution or humorous alternative, I will gladly incorporate whatever makes the best story.

Story updates will come from the Adren the Bard account, which will be reserved for that purpose. If you would like to read just the story, I invite you to view this thread with Adren's posts in isolation. Out of character nuts and bolts, like this, will come from my main account.

Before we begin, we must craft the kind of story we are telling together. The only parameters I reserve are that the protagonist is a young adult male, approximately 23 years old, who lives in a non-Earth world with pre-modern technology, some degree of magic, and a society that is conducive to adventurers. Everything else is up to you.

Let's get started!

[Aristophanes]

/Subscribed

[xofelf]

I'm so very here for this.

[PenguinPower]

I'm so very here for this.

[Felissan]

I'm so very here for this.

[Xtoxm]

hello

[Cephrir]

oh neat

[Pine]

To answer a question: Adren is not the protagonist in question, but rather the bard telling the story. Adren will eventually be encountered by the protagonist, and may adventure with him. The protagonist’s class/profession and some details about Adren will be determined in an upcoming survey.

I anticipate four or five of these initial character creation surveys, and then we’ll jump into the story. This time is for you all to tell me what sort of story you want told, while later input will be about making more immediate- and short-term choices.

[Haschel Cedricson]

/ego

[Jingle]

/ego

[Menalque]

ego

[NotAJumbleOfNumbers]

oh look it's anfosngsdjfkgmsftghstu /in

[Iconeum]

I'm so very here for this.

[Pine]

The response level has been overwhelming so far! I was prepared to be perfectly happy with ten responses by the end of the weekend, and you all have nearly doubled that in the first day.

I'll leave the first survey open until the end of the day, then post the results and the second round. I think with this degree of engagement, I can accelerate the pace of the preliminary stages.

Thanks all!

[Cheery Dog]

I look forward to reading your creation

[Iprobablysuck]

This interests me

[the worst]

quack

[Equinox]

I am interested in this product or service.

[Cephrir]

The response level has been overwhelming so far! I was prepared to be perfectly happy with ten responses by the end of the weekend, and you all have nearly doubled that in the first day.

I'll leave the first survey open until the end of the day, then post the results and the second round. I think with this degree of engagement, I can accelerate the pace of the preliminary stages.

Thanks all!

oh, there's a survey!

[logan5123]

same

[dsjstr]

Taoat B

What happened to taoat A

[dsjstr]

Taoat B

What happened to taoat A

This is so bad I already regret making this comment XD

[Pine]

Okay, the votes are in! I don't plan on releasing the full results of most surveys, that would be tedious and not useful. However, for this first one, it might be helpful to see the results and explain how I use this data to make decisions for the characters.



For this first one, responses were highly varied. The three joke answers were set aside, and the remaining one (the whaling port) was considered and discarded. That left a three-way tie...not a great start, friends. In this situation, I use my own discretion. I looked ahead to the other responses, and decided to combine two of the most popular - our protagonist was raised on a farm outside a village on the edge of a great forest.



This next one had a clear winner, but was hardly decisive. Using my discretion, I interpreted this to mean that the protagonist was raised by a single parent within a larger community consisting of an extended family. The second parent was around when he was little, but disappeared before he had more than vague memories. This question also had the only write-in vote I considered (raised among siblings), but I felt the majority selection was more compelling.



This one was pretty clear, even if 27.6% is a paltry plurality. The sister is noticeably older, perhaps 31 to the protagonist's 23, and moved away when he was a teen.



At last, a clear winner. A decisive percentage of you envision our protagonist as having lived a secure but hard-working life on a modest yet successful farm.