What Would You Want to See in an Armageddon Book?

[Sanvean]

I'm still trying to figure out the possibilities here, and it's looking more feasible because I've found a place where an initial deposit wouldn't be necessary.  Plus I'll get a chance to do some brainstorming with other staff at the upcoming AIM.

So...some questions so I know what the players would want out of it.

What sort of content would you want?  Docs from the website, logs, character histories... what?  Are there things that aren't on the website that you would like to see?  What about including the entries from the livejournal?  

Is there clan documentation that would be appropriate?

Are there things that you definitely would not want to see in such a book?

The cost goes up according to the number of pages and other considerations like artwork and binding.  What do you think would be a fair price?

[Dakkon Black]

This is exciting because, well, I started writing one about a year ago and it's almost at 200 pages now.  The things that I considered and would definately suggest are,

Keeping the world identical yet avoiding any IC secrets like,

then I walked three rooms east of nack and grabbed vine to enter steinal.

Basing the main plot would be very difficult as well for two reasons, how can you do it now? If it didn't happen in the game.

How can you do it in the past? If it's not in the history

How can you do it in the future? If it's going to be followed through.

As for a fair price, that would really depend on your publishing costs. I would be willing to pay $20 for it easilly, though that's in Canadian pesos so... hell knows down in the states.

As for content I would like to see. Highly recommended would probably be

A glossary. Animals, houses, major cities, etc.

My final decision on the my books plot was hard to make, but it's basically in the past and signifigant and exciting, yet at the same time not so world changing as to have been historical.

In others words, not the Belgariad. *Grins*

Don't know if any of that helps, but I'm an armaddict and think the book idea is fantastic. Also, due to the consistency of the world, and your knowledge of it, I'm certain that it would find a much wider readership then meerly us players and in fact, perhaps a bad thing, bring peoples attention our way.

As sixty of the bad guy in Sanveans book apply to be chars the day after it's published and every day after. Muahaha

[flurry]

What kind of book do you have in mind, Sanvean?  At first when I started reading your post, I thought you meant a novel based on Armageddon, but then you mentioned logs and clan docs.

Who is the intended audience?

[Sanvean]

I was thinking more a compilation of reference docs than a novel - although I've also got a novel in the works, I'd like to see if I could get a publishing house to publish it.  People had mentioned printing out all the web docs so they had a hard copy, so it would probably be whichever of the web docs people wanted, with some bonus stuff not available on the website.

[flurry]

In that case, some things that to mind for me are

 :idea: Profiles of the templarate, noble houses, merchant houses, tribes.
:idea: Profiles of the different population centers, perhaps including rough maps
:idea: Reference to Zalanthan races, fauna, and flora (illustrations would be fantastic)

[Dakkon Black]

Wow, was my post ever worthless. Listen to Flurry, she rolled better on her wisdom.

[Nidhogg]

I'd like to see high profile characters references, perhaps from the player pov, and the povs of people whose pcs were affected by them. In a section on it's own. I'd confine this to five or ten though.

[Larrath]

How about including things about particularly notable characters that have been long dead, or old plots and how they've turned out?
Boopsie comes to mind as one character I'd like to hear about, for instance.

I'm sure many of us would like to know how things look like on the staff side of things while still not having everything spoiled.

[Revelations]

Hey, that's great. What I'd really like to see are visual images of plants and perhaps overhead pictures of the major cities. A detailed map of the land of course would be out of the question, but a general, more colorful picture of the Known World would be good as well. I wouldn't mind seeing some art of the alleys and a noble house to get a better view of how things look. Personally, I'm a very visual person, and the more pictures, the better. Descriptions of each might be handy for each depiction. I don't really know who'd draw these up though...

A few possibilities from the top of my head would be:
(#) = a drawing if possible

(the effects of a sorcerer drawing from the land)
The life of commoners.
The life of the nobility.
The life of desert tribes.
History of each city-state.
(the major beasts and insects)
Magick, and it's significance in society.

[Ghost]

I'd like to see high profile characters references, perhaps from the player pov, and the povs of people whose pcs were affected by them. In a section on it's own. I'd confine this to five or ten though.

[Manhattan]

no i definitely do not want to see a novel
the world is not original enough to permit a novel (darksun)
there are millions of fantasy novels out there and an Arm one is no different
unless u were William Faulkner, i dont suspect the novel will have a good storyline


id rather see something along the lines of an encyclopedia, big thick and colorful. lots of pretty pictures (especially from artists of D&D cos those guys are gooood)

but u know how encyclopedias are, and its a fact......theyre boring! reading them wud be like going to school again. so instead of an encyclopedia-encyclopedia, i suggest something like "Fun Tasty Encyclopedia with Lots of Pictures"

that includes: POV's (which is a good idea btw), day in the life of a Bynner short story, a Allanaki hierarchy chart, MAPS, list of fauna and flora, and of course .... lots and lots of picture.

[John]

What sort of content would you want?

What do you think would be a fair price?

$20 US (assuming no profit for Arm. If you decide to raise the price so Arm gets some money to help pay for adverts, server, etc then I'd be willing to pay $30 US).

As for what I'd want, well here's an extensive list (I wouldn't expect -everything- of course ):
* Short Stories not found on the website Perhaps if something is detailed in the book, include a small short story about what was just described. For example, if you include a timeline and mention the Dragon coming to the Known World, include a small short story that depicts the Dragon coming to the known world, perhaps from the perspective of an unimportant commoner in the first city the Dragon took over.

* Information on the lost clans. There've been plenty of clans that have either been removed from the playerbase or have died in the game itself. Have some information on those clans. For example there use to be Blackwing clan docs linked to on the site. It'd be interesting to be able to learn some new information on them

* Festivals, holidays (how they came to be), etc that only exist virtually.

* How some of the races came to be (such as the Half-giants, or the giants themselves). The docs hint that the gith evolved from elves (or there was a common ancestor that turned into the elves and gith). Learning more about that would be interesting.

* There were numerous kingdoms that existed before the dragon came, some knowledge about them would be interesting

* A map of what zalanthas was once like (along with a more detailed map of what zalanthas currently looks like. For example this page mentions the Thornwalker Mountains, but they aren't on any map.

* How clans/cities have evolved over time. Was a House a tribe? How was it created? Has Borsail always been the most prestigious House?

* Narratives on some of the RPTs and plots that have happened. A narrative on exactly what happened in Thrain's life would be very interesting. More recently the Mantis took over Luir's Outpost. Why? What was the deal there? Is that IC info? Yup. Is it likely anyone will learn why it happened in the future? As far as I know, very unlikely. So why not include it? (This was ONLY used as an example. If this particular plot is still too IC, then of course don't include it. But I imagine there are plenty of plots that have been run that wouldn't be IC anymore).

* Anything involving Steinal

* Lots and lots of IC info I'm half-kidding with this. Basically, if it's unlikely someone anyone will ever find out, why not include it?

If you want more specific examples feel free to e-mail/PM me

[EDIT]: And I see quite a few people had the same idea as me.

[Ghost]

Short stories is a wonderful idea!  They can be very much entertaining and informing.

Aside from that, the IC info John talks about can be handled through the character histories.  I am sure, a character history collides with most others if he got to be anyone of importance.
(I should write my char's history.. Fast!)

The history also can be explained via short stories.  The history could have lots of stories to be made up.  But most importantly, I think the history should be mostly made of the times that have been played out.  Or maybe not mostly, but half an half.  (Half pre-history, half played out)  The fall and re-rise of Tuluk;  the battles between the North and south;  the fights between the noble houses (subtle.. Assassinations, spies...etc).  Things most people wanted to know so much about, back in time could well be placed in the book.  For example, last year's skirmish between the North and South was one of the coolest things I ever saw.  Some people knew why and how it happened, but most people did not, there was even people saying they were just peons and did not understand why they died suddenly.  This can be put into a story for example.
The fall of Luir's?  The HRPT involving a psionic fight?  Halaster's Recommended Pkilling Times ?

Also short stories involving how a life of a desert dweller would be;  how a life of a city dweller; a loner; a hunter; a tribal; a tribe banished....?
WarriorPoet had an excellent story of a hunter being raided in the wastes for example.  Something like that could be fun reading.

I would like to be of help if any is needed.  Any help!  But I don't know how much we can contribute to it.

[Linedel]

Realistically, character histories are really, really boring.  (To anyone that doesn't already play.)

Better would be vignettes of interesting events that happened either from a "real" character's point of view, or made up ones.  This allows detailed (and non boring) text rather than a detail-lacking essay that's mostly just a timeline.

What also might be good, and allow some artistry, would be a more detailed account of some major events surrounding the uniting of the tribes and founding of Allanak.  Origins of Tektolnes, pre-dragon, and the origin of the "noble houses" if their history dates that far back.  Perhaps some of the Tuluki houses are banished southern ones...  Stories where one of the Tektolnes clan is a good guy...

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I'm forced to ask: Who's buying this book? Is it just us players, or are you talking about on a larger scale? If you are, you may not have to worry about D&D rights, since the gaming system is open licensed - though I may be and am probably wrong.

But I think the first question really sums up what you should and should not do. I am not opposed to a novel (I happen to think that a great plot could be created from the events that occur in our game world), and I am not opposed to a documentary, either.

[jmordetsky]

I'd love to see detailed world history (what a commoner would know anyway), complete with HRPTs, famous PCs etc.

[Tamarin]

If the book is being sold for profit, then you'd have to pay the WOTC people.

[Incognito]

I'd like to see (original??) artwork (preferably submitted by the original area writer) for all the zones on the mud, including structures, animal life, plant life etc etc.

Basically a graphic representation of the areas on the mud, right out of the creator's mind, and penned into pictures. Reading text descs is one thing, but linking a certain room on the mud with a definite picture in your mind, or visualizing what exactly a braxat looks like, when youre killing one, is definitely WAY cooler.

Also, I'd love to see some details about the Crafting Code, without giving away IC info. Maybe lists of common materials and lists of commonly crafted items (without recipes). I'd love to show off my ArmageddonMudBook to a friend and show em how many crafting skills there are and what kinda stuff one can make in each of them, with a few examples.

Maps.

List of people the mud would like to give credit to, for whatever reason (like area writing, major code changes/introductions etc).

OOC history of ArmageddonMud - how it started, who started it, when did it first open to play, who were the staff then, who got thrown out, who left, funny immortal-immortal or immortal-mortal incidences which will remain a part of Arm forever - and whatever other staff/game related info that the staff can share with the players - from Day 1 till today.

A copy of the entire list of words that have helpfiles.

Glossary of pronounciations. Is Dujat pronounced Du-jah-t or Du-zha-t? Is Allanak pronounced as All-a-nak or A-la-nak? (well, if not in the book, it'd be cool to have clarifications on pronounciation somewhere on our website atleast).

A pull-out center-fold with a variety of Arm/Zalanthas stickers.

[Maybe42or54]

A centerfold of all the Hottest Templars.
Like Kishime.

[RunningMountain]

I would check with Wizards first, they own all the IP to Darksun.

[ashyom]

We no longer have any connections to either WOTC or DarkSun.

[picklehead]

No connection to DarkSun? How do you figure? It's been awhile since I read the books, but wouldn't references to things like erdlus and mantis and whatnot be an issue?

Also, I'd want a chapter devoted to erotic depictions of all the hottest imms.. tastefully done, of course.

[RunningMountain]

We no longer have any connections to either WOTC or DarkSun.

Most of the content from the monsters, races/classes, weapons, settings (tablelands, salt flats, sea of silt, etc) even the storyline to an extent is comparable with darksuns city-states.  So if profit is made, checking with them is advisable, at least from my point of view, even though they don't support the material and campiagn anymore they still own the rights to it, that's why people can't write Darksun novels anymore, they released the materials but only for non-profit.

-RM

[Stroker]

This is exciting because, well, I started writing one about a year ago and it's almost at 200 pages now. The things that I considered and would definately suggest are,

I shall begin hating you now; for, you see, I cannot even get past 30 pages without losing focus and interest. Curse my lack of concentration.

Pax,

Dirr