Subject:
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Re: Proposal: BW!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 14 Dec 2000 10:50:59 GMT
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Viewed:
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834 times
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<snip>
Some people have asked me for more information on this before they make a
definitive comment. Therefore I am posting the FAQ (which also serves as a
rulebook) for BW!.
--
[BW!][FAQ] Version 1.0
[This is basically the document which sets down all the rules, etc. about
the BW!. It also explains the basic idea.]
The document you are now reading is the BW! FAQ 1.0
Current Author: Andrusi
E-mail me at: andyvvv@aol.com
Much of this, including the basic structure, was "borrowed" from the
PokéWars (PW!) FAQ, which was written by Dreadite, then subsequently edited
by RobfromVoid and Continue when it needed updating and Dreadite didn't have
time. For information on contacting these people, ask in the Usenet
newsgroup alt.games.nintendo.pokemon.
In all cases, spam and harassment/BS will be held in the UTMOST contempt,
and may wind up causing the sender great pain, or great big lawsuits. There,
got that out of the system. I welcome LUGNET people, and BW! people... and
most anyone else that's not gonna bother me.
A: The table of contents.
A: The table of contents. =P
B: Introduction.
1: What's the FAQ?
2: What's the PokéWars?
3: What's a newsgroup?
4. What are those little symbols?
5: How do I join?
6: The rules. What not to do.
I. Writers guides!
II. Weird Lego stuff.
III. Other People's characters, etc.
IV. Special powers.
V. Know-everything stuff.
VI. Creation and destruction.
VII. Interaction.
VIII. Minifig production. ;)
IX. Non-continuity.
X. The Weapons rule.
XI. The Lego world.
7: What should I do? What's a good idea?
8: Omnipotence... scary, ne?
9: Banning, the punishment of crime.
10: Websites! I need websites, NOW!
B: Introduction. This is the first version of this document, as you may have
guessed.
1: What's the FAQ? FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. Most of them
have the answers, too. This one has those, plus the base rules for the BW.
2: What's the BW? BW! is an ongoing fanfic on the Lego Users Group Network
(LUGNET). It's set in the Lego world, in the Town system (more systems may
be added later).
And, if that's not enough for you, here's some more. The PW! is a
fanfic, meaning people like you write it. It has many participants, and
there's interactivity. So, unless everyone suddenly dies, it keeps going.
It's about Lego, the amazing construction toy that I'm sure you already knew
about. Specifically it's mainly about the minifigs. If you don't know what
I'm talking about, why are you here?
Incidentally, the name BW! comes from BrickWars. But Lego doesn't like
being associated with war (never mind the space lasers, Wild West guns,
Pirate swords, and the whole Star Wars theme), so the full "BrickWars!" name
has been basically dropped in favor of just BW!.
3. What's LUGNET? I think I mentioned that above. It can be found at
http://www.lugnet.com.
4. What are those bracketed symbols seen on BW! posts? Those are special
header tags. Anyone posting about the BW! should use them. I'll list them
here for all of you people. Be SURE to use the right ones!
[BW!] The base header. It IDs a post as a BW! post. All BW! posts must have
this in front of any other tags.
[NS] This header means that this is not a story, or a writer's guide. PLEASE
remember to use this when your post is not a writers guide, or directly
relating to the story. This means, unless you are actually posting a story
or WG, use this tag!
[WG] This means that the post is a Writer's Guide for something. A writer's
guide is a helper for writing someone else's character or base, etc.
[NC] This means the story inside is outside the normal continuity, and
therefore, outside many of the rules. This tag is not for telling people
LOL, saying you'll be gone for a week, or something else along those lines.
The correct tag for those is NS.
[FAQ] This means that the post is this document, or another version of it.
[META] For important things. Don't use this unless it's very important, and
rules based.
5. How do I join? Well, first of all, finish this document.
Once you've thoroughly read the FAQ, you'll need to make a Writer's Guide
for your character, and post it on lugnet.general.
If you need help with the making of a Writer's Guide, check out other
people’s, at most of the sites in section ten.
Most people tend to write a character that is based off of them in
personality or some other way, because it's easier to write. You don't have
to, however.
When you're done with that, post a story. Make sure to follow the rules, though.
Oh, and you can't be an established official LEGO character. This includes
not only characters mentioned specifically in set names or in "under the
lid" text (such as Johnny Thunder or Dr. Cyber), but also characters
mentioned only in catalogs or the Lego Club magazine. You can, however, be
a character whos minifig would be virtually identical to an established
character.
For example, you could be an F1 driver with a white suit (but not Turbo
Charger), a "pilot" ResQ worker (but not Ariel), or a Launch Command
astronaut (but not Becky Blastinoff).
6. The rules. What not to do. Here we are in the bulk of this FAQ. Read
this, or else. I'll list the rules, and some examples of what NOT to do, okay?
I. You can have a maximum of FOUR writers guides at one time. For instance,
I could write my "self" character, a location, and another character
representing a friend or enemy of my character. I could write one more, and
I'd be maxed out.
If you want, you can withdraw a WG at any time. However, this means that
whatever was in the WG is effectively cancelled. This doesn't necessarily
mean it flashes out of existance, but you lose your control over it. You
can, however, re-establish the WG and thus regain control. But it then
counts toward your 4 WG max.
You can only have one character, location, or team per WG. No
character+location, no multiple locations, ONE thing. Also, you cannot
write a WG for a standard building used by an established group--for
example, a hospital, police station, ResQ base, or Octan station. (You can,
however, establish things like Xtreme Team camps.)
There are a couple of exceptions to the "one thing" rule. One is the case of
a duo. If you have a duo of characters who are always together, then they
can be kept in one WG. The second is that if your character rarely leaves a
location, they can be together in one WG (i.e. a chef in a restaurant, clown
in a circus, etc.).
II. Weird Lego stuff.
Most Lego sets depict things that would probably occur in multiple
locations: police stations, cars, bicycles, hot girls... ::clears throat::
Anyway, these things are understood to be common. Anything which has
appeared as a Lego Town, Town Jr., Adventurers, Divers, or Arctic set is
available to your characters, as well as anything else that seems to make
sense. Note that anything questionable can be questioned, or something like
that.
There are, however, some exceptions:
-The space program. This falls under the general category of Launch
Command. They have at their disposal four space shuttles which are assumed
to follow the general design of the Launch Command shuttles. They also have
two launching pads, as presented in SpacePort and Launch Command. Please
don't destroy these, as they're really expensive and the Legoland government
already spent the rest of the space program's money on buying several
million Mini Rocket Launchers. Beyond that, the rest of the SpacePort and
Launch Command themes are available as "expendable" (i.e. uncounted, lots)
items.
-Race sets. The exact vehicles presented in the sets are unique; that is,
there's only one #4 Octan F1 car, and so on. However, similar vehicles
(such as other F1 cars) are certainly available.
-TimeCruisers and TimeTwisters sets. These are completely unique. There
are no human Time Cruisers besides Dr. Cyber and Timmy, and no human Time
Twisters besides Professor Millennium and Tony Twister (ick, bad name).
They have no vehicles not released in sets. They are not accepting new
members. They will not take just anyone back in time. The reason for this
is time travel has a lot of potential abuse.
Beyond that, just think about what you're doing and you should be fine.
III. You CANNOT kill another person's character, move them long distances,
or destroy their belongings without the author's EXPRESS permission. Also,
no brainwashing, creating a huge backstory for them, etc. The same basic
rules apply for a character using time travel. E-mail the author and ask if
you can do something like that to them. If they don't have an E-mail, post
to the group using the NS tag.
If you get no response because they have no E-mail, it's THEIR tough beans.
=P It pays to have an E-mail address, folks! There's tons of free ones you
can get. Try these:
http://www.deja.com/
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.hotmail.com/
The list goes on. There are a bunch of free E-mail providers.
IV. There are limitations on the powers and abilities that characters can
have. I'll list them here for your reference.
Magic/psychic/telekinetic/etc. abilities. It probably won't be as common in
BW! as it is in PW!, but this still needs to be addressed.
-Teleportation. Place limit on this, okay? This includes the Hand of
God--try to avoid overuse.
-Mind Reading. You cannot read another character's mind, unless their author
gave you permission. Empathy, which is reading emotions, is okay. It doesn't
allow you to know everything, just to pick up on if someone is trying to
kill you, or something.
-Attacking. Keep this down, okay? This isn't Pokémon, it's Lego.
All in all, as long as you're not practically a witch or genie or sorcerer,
most people will be fine with it.
Scientific and engineering skills. This needs to be addressed because of
the nature of Lego.
-The more complicated the RL equivalent of an object is, the more knowledge
is needed to operate or build it. A three-year-old can't build an airplane.
-Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has figured out how to repair disassembled (i.e.
dead) minifigs.
-See the Weapons section.
V. Know-all devices/people/pokémon/powers are not allowed. The reasons are
in the omnipotence section, but I'll give you a few. The first is that if
everyone knew everything, that would be the point? This is to have fun, not
to show off.
VI. About the creation of stuff... and destruction.
Lego is based on creation. Make pretty much anything you like, as long as
it fits in with the Town theme. More on this later.
You cannot devastate a city. No destroying important landmarks, like
official sets. You can destroy your house, or something like that. But why
would you do that? ^_^
VII. Interaction is good. Some people seem to have the idea that the PW! is
a place to post your own little fanfic. I don't want this happening in BW!.
The BW! is an interactive fanfic. Stress the interactive part. Interaction
is the flesh and blood (studs and tubes?) of the BW!.
So, interact! If you don't like it, go write fanfics.
VIII. Making new minifigs, and I don't mean with a mold. Plus, violence! All
the qualities of a action movie.
Avoid any scene that should be in a porn movie. In fact, you might want to
avoid the whole subject of reproduction at all costs. It might help if you
picture a pair of naked minifigs attempting to mate. There, that should keep
you from writing any lemons.
Think of this as having to go into a PG rating. There, that should handle it.
And about the violence. Well, look. It's fine, but don't describe every gory
detail, okay? There's probably little kids reading this, you know.
IX. Non-continuity.
Well, quite simply, Non-continuity is NOT for having your own huge
storyline. It is for having little stories set a bit outside the rules, or
for all-out chaos and goofyness.
If you want to have a huge NC interactive thing, I'm SURE people can think
of something. ^_^;;
You're really treading thin ice if you travel back and forth from non-
continuity into continuity, since characters that come from a world without
rules might break rules in continuity, so please don't do that. It's been
done in the past and the people who did it were very careful about not
breaking rules, but let's keep the NC world apart from the real BW! world.
X. Weapons and technology
You CANNOT have a weapon that exceeds the limitations of technology in the
real world. No plasma cannons, photon guns, phasers, lightsabers, or any
such things. In other words, nothing exclusive to the Space or Star Wars themes.
Non-weapon things are okay if used with caution. For example:
-Hover-vehicles. Okay in small numbers belonging to people who are very
smart/rich/whatever.
-Faster-than-light travel. Unacceptable.
-Tractor beams. I don't think so.
-Lasers. Okay if presented at their current level. Unacceptable as
blaster weapons, etc.
Be careful with this. You may think a giant robot is okay, but someone else
might consider it to be a weapon. You've been warned.
XI. The Lego World.
Okay, this is where we split off from PW! majorly. See, Pokémon defined its
world pretty well. On the other hand, Lego hasn't given us much to work with.
BW! currently utilizes only the Town, Divers, Arctic, and Adventurers
themes. It is assumed to take place in the present-day world.
BW! takes place in the country of Legoland, which exists on the main
continent of the fictional planet Lego. The nation is divided into an
undefined number of provinces, which are generally made up as we go. These
provinces are beyond writers' control, and need not be WG'ed. Each of these
provinces is about the size of the state of Georgia. I'm sorry about using
a U.S.-based comparison, but I don't know enough geography to come up with
anything better. My apologies to the 99% of you who aren't stuck in this
hellhole of a country. :P Neighboring nations include Dupland and
Technica, plus other such obviously pun-named places.
The capital of Legoland is System City. Other cities will be defined as we
need them; this doesn't count as one of your WGs, but then again you don't
get to control cities you make up. The Legoland government has at least
five monarchs, three presidents, four prime ministers, and two dictators at
any given time. The government itself has been buried so thoroughly under
bureaucracy that nobody has any idea how it actually works--not even the
emporers, prime ministers, presidents, and monarchs. Legoland has a
well-balanced capitalist economy.
The planet Lego is populated by minifigs. They act like humans for all
practical purposes. Their limbs can move like actual human limbs, and their
elbows work. But they look like minifigs, they have minifig heads and
hands, and so on. Hair is assumed to be part of a minifig's head--they
don't have to take off their hair to put a hat on.
Everything is made of actual Legos. Not everyone has the ability to work
with Legos, though. This is reserved primarily for mechanics, who know how
to work with heavy machinery like battery box lids and brick separators.
Other people can repair stuff, too, but only people with special training
can completely assemble or disassemble a set.
Companies which exist inside the Lego world include three gas companies
(Octan, Shell, and Exxon), McDonald's, Disney, and The Lego Group (picture
minifig-scale 1x1s, it makes me laugh, how 'bout you?). Other companies can
be defined as needed, and are not owned by any particular author, as with
cities and provinces.
Legoland currently has peaceful relations with all surrounding countries.
This is mainly so I don't have to figure out how the military works. If we
vote to start a war with Dupland or Technica, I'll change this and define
the military.
ResQ is a special program started by the Legoland government. It basically
comprises an immediate-response team used in emergencies. ResQ vans and
paramedics go places ordinary ambulances can't, and ResQ chopper pilots can
handle the toughest of weather conditions. Coast Guard boats just can't
match the response time of a ResQ hovercraft or speedboat. However, normal
medical vehicles have much better medical equipment. Additionally, ResQ is
only meant to serve as an auxilliary paramedic force; a ResQ base does not
comprise a hospital.
Out in eastern Legoland is the Brickian Desert, home to the Ebricktian
Pyramids. Around the equator is the Tilezon Jungle. A mile off the west
coast lies Dino Island. All over the west coast, ruins of castles and
wrecked pirate ships can be found. To the far north, a portion of Legoland
intersects the Arctic Circle.
One of the most popular TV shows is Throwbots, a sci-fi-series about robots
on channel 17. It competes with Bionicle on channel 11 and RoboRiders on
channel 8. (I put this in because there's really no reason that the various
Slizerish sets would ever constitute a theme.) Star Wars is the most
popular sci-fi movie in Legoland.
There. I think that's all the important stuff. More themes may be added
someday, which is why I didn't put down the Space or Aquazone themes as
sci-fi shows.
7. So, what SHOULD I do? What's a good idea? Create a cure for cancer. Oh,
right, the BW!.
Well, as a wise candy Youma once said, "It's better to write one good story
than to write one hundred bad ones."
He also had the good taste to grace us with this idea.
"I try to think like that character would in that situation. It makes for
better writing. Plus, knowing how to change between first and third person
is helpful."
Both great tidbits of advice. Listen to the Chibi-Youma!
Spellcheck. People would like that. Oh, and did I mention capitalization? Or
how about punctuation? All very good ideas. ^_^
Keep your powers medium or weak. Nobody likes an ultimate power.
Also, be SURE to use the right tags. SOME people have screwed this up...
*looks around* Yes, you, back there! I'm talking to you, and him in the corner.
Shower at least once every few days. =P Trust me here, it's worth it to get
away from the computer. By the way, an RCX won't take the shower well, either.
Take a joke. If you don't have a sense of humor, you won't last long. I'll
kill you myself unless... Now, did you take that as a joke? Good. ^_^
Don't do this: "hi i'm baddude13 and i'm teh best mnifig in teh wrold i win"
Because that's hust dumb.
8. Omnipotence... scary, ne? Omnipotence. Every newbie’s dream... until they
get flamed from the pits of hell for it. So, this will define the term as
it's applied in the BW!.
Overpowered characters. These are omnipotent, and a bit disliked. Sure, some
powers are fun... but how likes cosmicly powerful characters? *watches hands
raising left and right* Er, nevermind. Who likes them used against you?
*watches the hands quickly drop.* Nobody likes them. As much as you want to
be one, resist the urge. Or there will be consequences.
Know-it-all characters. Nobody likes to write with them, because it's really
not cool. The same goes for overpowered types.
Being anywhere you need to. The PW! has a legend of a group who, in the
course of a few days, gathered all 8 badges. (Which is somthing that took
the characters on the Pokémon TV show over a year. See the problem?) That's
not fun, really. Take your time... it'll be better in the long run. This is
for the fun of writing with others, and sometimes making everyone laugh, or
cry... be a good writer! Have fun. ^_^
9. Banning, the punishment of the crime. This is the gritty part of the BW!,
and should be carefully read. Sometimes, people break rules, and sometimes
it's not on purpose, sure. But, this is what happens.
1. You will be warned about the rules you're breaking. Anyone in the BW! can
and should warn you. Once you've been warned, you should fix what you did,
or just ignore it, and never do it again. However, if you continue to break
the rules, and don't fix what you did, the next step will happen.
2. There will be a poll. This isn't a U.S.A. presidential election, public
opinion counts. Everyone will vote, and if you're voted against by the
majority, you're banned from the BW!. You will be ignored, and your posts
will not be archived. You can still read, sure. You could even create a new
net-ID, and come back. Be warned, though. People will catch on if you keep
breaking rules after doing that. ^_^
However, for the most part, you're screwed. So, try to follow the rules,
Okay? Good. Oh, and unless the poll happens, there will be no banning.
That's a safeguard. It'll keep angry people, like myself, from taking it out
on someone for no reason. ^_^
The following have been banned:
Nobody. Let's keep it that way.
10. Websites! I need websites! NOW!
There are no BW! websites yet. Sorry.
Well, that's all. Keep on building!
Oh, and any other questions, just contact me.
---
And that's the FAQ. Any questions?
-Andy &&
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Proposal: BW!
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| This is an idea that Andrew (the Agent 0007 one) and I were tossing around a while back. You see, over on the newsgroup alt.games.nintendo.pokemon, we have this thing that we call PokéWars!, or PW! for short. Basically what it is, is a huge (...) (24 years ago, 12-Dec-00, to lugnet.general)
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