The Stakes are High: The Polls

My first question:

Would the beginning of Chapter 1 (by Bruno) fit better in Chapter 4?

A lot of it coincidentally carries the same format that was used for Possessed's posts in Chapter 4. Plus, Chapter 4 is storytelling, adding that dramatic, complicated or vague element to the Story, whereas Chapter 1 I pictured being more about mechanics and rules and the game itself.

This is just an idea I wanted to bring up as I go through it, to add new things to the book, and I was wondering if anybody shared my sentiments, or if it should just be left alone. Keep in mind, the only reason I put Bruno words there in Chapter 1 was because at the time the book had only three chapters and I had no idea where to put it.

Well, looks like I can't add another poll qestion right now... so I roll dice instead! PG style!

The member 'Gattison' has done the following action : Dice Roll

#1 'd10' : 6

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#2 'd10' : 7

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#3 'd10' : 8

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#4 'd10' : 7

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#5 'd10' : 7

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#6 'd10' : 6

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#7 'd10' : 5

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#8 'd10' : 7

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#9 'd10' : 8

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#10 'd10' : 5

;;swing with katana while wearing trench-coat and earphones;;

The member 'Gattison' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd10' : 3, 9, 9, 3, 2, 4, 8, 1, 4, 1

I agree with you, it does fit better into chapter 4 even though I think there might be some issues with moving it.
The text that Bruno wrote compared to what is in chapter 4 differs quite alot in the way that they are written and should probably for that reason not go into eachother like one text but kept seperate.
Another issue is that the Baali's connection to the Abyss would be brought up on two occasions, one as a sidebar (from chapter 1) and one as part of the text (in chapter 4), and I think both of those texts are good and one should probably not cancel the other out.
If you can make it happen without editing too much of what's been written then I support this action fully cuz it does work better in Chapter 4, I just want it to be done without loosing any info and be done "classy". If it proves too much of a hustle then leave it cuz where Bruno's text is right now works very nice as an early eyecatcher in the book which feeds the reader's interest. This text was one huge reason to why I got interested and jumped onboard this project, so its not bad to have it early either.

here I can make alternate files and mess with them, thus keeping the original format intact, just in case we want to go back.

Also, the formatting is still a little wonky in places because of recent additions anyway, plus most chapters are still unfinished, so things aren't in their finals positions anyway, as far as I'm looking at it. Only the Introduction could be said to be done, but I should probably actually go back and rewrite the chapter descriptions again, since when I first wrote them, we were just beginning the book, and had nothing written. so even that one may need some adjusting.

Tell you what though, I've been thinking of emailing the "missing" people and politely asking if they are currently too busy or what, so we can decide how to proceed. I think emails would have a better chance of response than the ol' facebook conversation.

I also know I've said this before, but maybe now's a good time to return to the ww-forum for some help, here and there. We could even start asking Steven Markley and/or Mr. Gone to start hosting our book so people can DL it and help easier.

What do you think of that?

I think even if chapter 4 is storytelling, the Byrsa's text is very introductory and (in my opinion) should stay at the beginning of the book. I can see the reason for putting it in chapter four, but I don't think it's the best place for it.

However, I'm good with what you guys decide, and I can certainly be talked into moving it to chapter four.

Yeah Valis, to me it doesn't matter much. I like the way the book looks now so I see your point.

Gattison wrote:

Tell you what though, I've been thinking of emailing the "missing" people and politely asking if they are currently too busy or what, so we can decide how to proceed. I think emails would have a better chance of response than the ol' facebook conversation.

I think this is a very good idea! This book could be finished within a week really if people focused. We are at the end and what's left to write has already been assigned to certain people, if they can't finish it then we need to know that so we can try to do it. I recommend everyone to browse the checklist on what's left and make that last effort.

Gattison wrote:

I also know I've said this before, but maybe now's a good time to return to the ww-forum for some help, here and there. We could even start asking Steven Markley and/or Mr. Gone to start hosting our book so people can DL it and help easier.

What do you think of that?

Well at the end of the day, this is your baby Gattison and you should go ahead and do those last final things you need to do for this to be 100% by your standards. If that includes getting more viewpoints and opinions then you should go for it. I can understand why you would wanna do that, but before you take that step I will propose an alternative and then you can decide upon which route you wanna take.
We have had our big Abyss thread on the WW-forum all this time and all along you have invited people to be a part of the shaping of your project. I don't really see the point to walk in there now with your 99% finished book and ask for help. What could they bring to the table now, that they couldn't done before, and what would make them do so? And what happens if they read what we have done and they started to suggest changes, if they dislike portions of the book and etc, would we cater to the wishes of people who never cared to help out before or would we keep it as it were? If the latter, then why are we showing this again? The alternative I suggest instead is that we finish the book without leaking it any further and then present to the forum a completely finished book that they can feel whatever about, they had their chance all along to impact it. The people who loves it will enjoy a finished project the way that they would enjoy a new White Wolf book, there is a difference between reading a book as a critic and as a reader. I believe that if we give them the chance of looking for flaws - they will find it. If we give them a book to read, they might enjoy it.
Like I said, this is just my thoughts of the matter and you should go about it the best way for you. I do understand the reasons of why you should do it the other way so I wouldn't feel anything about it if you did. I just wanted to present an alternative, I will stand by your decision no matter.

What Anda said. Agree 100%.

BTW, I'm one of the people with writing assignments that has not been showing up to work...

All my games are on hold because of player's lifes getting in the way (after my own life got in the way for a while), so I'm just a little uninspired lately.

I know I should finish Abyssal Alchemy and at least give one more re-writing to Mt. Kilimanjaro's write-up.

I certainly need help with the first, but I think I can manage the second on my own.

Is there anything else that I need to have a look at? Have we decided to cut that discipline conversion section, after all?

Alright, as far as "Byrsa's text," it should stay where it is. We'll just say that "The Abyss and..." is a theme of our book, not just that one chapter.

As for exposing the work before it's done, I understand your point, Sam, but I was actually not worried about that at all. I figured we would know enough about Abyssal stuff that we could sift through all the responses of "I don't understand why you made this decision so I bitch bitch bitch," and find the few golden nuggets of "that contradicts canon according to this book, this page," or "you forgot to consider A when describing B."

I wouldn't say that this book ever has to truly be done. There may very well come a day when we learn something new that slipped by us, or perhaps V20 adds something we need to consider, or maybe we made the wrong assumption by not considering some obscure canon-fact and have to re-think something. What if we release it as finished, and a year later some other fan writes a whole bunch of awesome stuff and submits it to us? Do we say, "sorry sucker, you missed the boat. No input from you allowed."

Also, consider the population of the ww-forum, there are a lot of new people signing up, previously inactive members returning, and it's been 10 months since we started, so any "regular-members" that were busy last time may be less busy and inclined to participate presently.

I'm not saying this is the best solution, and I'm not arguing for it yet, just pointing out all the things that I'm considering. I would be willing to resort to the forums though, if we hit any walls in these final steps here. ...And at least now I know you guys won't riot if I do end up doing that, lol. =)

@ Bruno: I think the Mount Kilimanjaro write-up is fine now, unless there's some stuff you really think would help if you added it. I'm with you on Abyssal Alchemy, and I think I have an idea for a good compromise that would please everybody. =) I also think you may be a good man for any of the following:

• Write-up for Castel D'Ombro? I think Anarch possibly could do this one.
  
• Write-up for Dark Monastery? Still waiting on anything from Peter.
  
• Write-up for Well of Bones?
  
• Write-up for Well of Souls?
  
• Fluff for Ghosts, Specters, Malfeans + Sample Antagonists

Also, I'm going to do a little work on Chapter 3 and see if it will be salvageable after it looks nice. I know none of us invested too much time in developing Chapter 3, but I feel it would be a helpful bit to have, and we didn't even have to write it... well, Bruno did, a little, actually.

@ Sam: OK, no drastic steps... for now, lol. We'll buckle down and do this ourselves, although I do want to accept feedback from the "public" after we release it. Somebody, somewhere, may have a valid contribution. Also, I'll start emailing some people to see what's up.