Greg has actually raised the possibility of II publication with me, as part of some general discussions on Whitewall. It would be great if this could happen, but there are some inherent copyright difficulties with group work in a public forum. Not that this is insurmountable, and I'm discussing possible options and strategies at the moment with Greg and others.
(Ever wonder why Stephen Martin doesn't read the Gloranthan lists? For the same reason, Greg won't be inspecting our wiki site - even though he's heard about it from several sources. Obviously, he has his own ideas extensive about Whitewall, and if material does come to publication, he must protect his own intellectual capital copyright-wise. Perhaps we're being over cautious about this, but Greg is an author/publisher and I'm an editor. :) )
I will report back to you all as soon as I can. I am confident there will be a way forward.
Basically, this group was set up around an 'open source Whitewall' idea - creating a broad framework of the siege that could be used by GMs in their own campaigns. One proviso of this has been that our work can be viewed and indeed added to by the public at any time - its on our wiki website, it can be accessed by anyone. In this sense, its already 'published', albeit with a certain wabi sabi aesthetic. It we follow through with our original plan, and invite the Glorantha tribe to add their own characters and events to the story of the siege, it will become even more of a communal work and communal property.
Personally, I'd like this to happen. This group is a lot of fun for me, and to date the experiment has worked well. And it doesn't preclude other options.
Publishing a CD of the site seems a possible way of sharing our common work. And of course the project is inspiring people to write scenarios, articles and fiction, which may see publication in a variety of places. While there are possible copyright issues about doing this, its the same as say, writing about Pavis, which has both (copyright) published background and a long tradition of player involvement and expansion..
Equally though, beyond the communal framework of our open source work there is scope for individual and small group writing - including scenario submission to Issaries and other sources. My own interest in Whitewall began as background for a proposed novel project - an expansion of Kallyrkarla. Looking back, I rather naively thought I could gather the background and plot out the basic of the siege in just a few weeks - perhaps asking advice from one of two others. We live and learn :).
We'll be able to discuss this more concretely when I report back in full. In the meantime though, think about the contribution you're making. If you have ideas that might best find expression in scenario written for publication or convention play, you may wish to *not* share them with the group.
Sorry that my initial response is a little half-baked - I will report back as soon as I can, hopefully with some concrete options. Having accepted an invitation to attend Tentacles at rather short notice, I'm finding myself extremely busy with seminar and scenario preparation. :)
Cheers
John
Powered by hypermail