The Chronicles of Crosarth – A Steampunk Adventure

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The Chronicles of Crosarth - a Steampunk Adventure

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Go North

by Trae Dorn on July 9, 2012 at 12:00 am

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└ Tags: Allison Friday, Ignatious Kellin, Ilyena Masters, Rutherford J Hayworth IV

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Jaasak

July 8, 2012 at 10:10 pm | # | Reply

3 things, Trae: 1-we get Ilyena's cousin outta the way with the truth. Sorry, girl, it's what it is. 2-the Admiral's pretty savvy about naval manouevers but I'm curious yellow if maybe he may've been misled…just in case. I hope the Fleet's deployment is as the Admiral says….but….I'm….worried. 3-So the Admiral's move is to the north but what then? Surely the Admiral has SOME sort of back-up plan, right? OR….is this where Dad comes in with his own plan. Just a thought: wanna see how this plays out. Kellin isn't there without cause, you know. OH….and 4-we know the Bird flew with just a skeleton crew what about the traitorous Baker; what has become of him, hmmmmm????? JIM
- Trae Dorn
  
  July 9, 2012 at 3:12 am | # | Reply
  
  Hayworth was still in full command of the air navy until they ran, so the second fleet is exactly where he thinks it is. Gen. Baker didn't make a move until he was sure Dauntless would agree, and while he's powerful, there's no way he could have prematurely usurped power in the internals of the Air Navy without Hayworth noticing.
  
  As for the Traitorous pilot, his family just finished taking complete control of the Crosarthian Military. He'll be just fine… For now.
  - Jaasak
    
    July 9, 2012 at 10:37 am | # | Reply
    
    I hope that Ben Arnold gets it good, (even worse than what the Commander thought to do to Ily's cuz), in payback (it IS a bitch, you know!).
    Still, I'd like to think that Adm Hayworth isn't a fool's ass and that he might consider consult with his father who might still, after 2 decades, have some insiders who'll help the Bird & her crew. Or am I too far off….???? JIM
    - Trae Dorn
      
      July 9, 2012 at 11:02 am | # | Reply
      
      All will be revealed 😛
      - Jaasak
        
        July 9, 2012 at 10:20 pm | #
        
        I'm lookin' forward to it. However, while at work today, I thought a lot about this story. One issue I've noted is that our "beloved" Mr Baker better enjoy what life he has now because somehow I've that gut feelin' that his daddy, among others, ain't none too comfortable-like with this tarnished dog son of his. Wouldn't surprise me if the General decides to have his son offed, then blame it on the terrorists whose allies, Hayworth & Co., have taken off letting them do the dirty work. Just a thought is all. Good story, T!!! ;-D JIM
      - Trae Dorn
        
        July 10, 2012 at 3:11 am | #
        
        Just a note – Michael Baker (the now-former pilot of the Hummingbird) is the nephew of General Baker. General Baker DOES have two sons, one of whom is Fleet Admiral of the (traditional) Navy and the other who was just behind Hayworth in the Air Navy.
        
        As for tarnish, the public image is young Michael standing up against the "evil" squid, and helping save the nation. I'm sure there's a dramatic story there too they'll be telling. For now, there is no good reason to off young Michael as long as he continues to value the family above all else.
      - Jaasak
        
        July 11, 2012 at 11:05 am | #
        
        Sorry for the mistake on the relationship. Ooopss! Also, yeah, he might hang in there-for a while-but in too many instances, (and I know from personal experience), these types always get too big in the head and decide that they're more valuable than they really are. Thus, our young Michael will remain alive but his days are, IMHO, numbered. I'm waiting to see how this all plays out! Good job, T! BTW, have you ever read The Flying Cloud by Paul Gazis? Good story, too! Just a mention…JIM
  - Jaasak
    
    July 9, 2012 at 10:38 am | # | Reply
    
    PS: "Ben Arnold" Baker, by the way….

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Trae's Blog

The Challenges of Writing in a Shared Fictional Universe With a Long Running Story ( February 27th 2018 )

So earlier this week, the first "plot installment" for No Brand Con 2018 went live. For those unaware, for most of its seventeen year history, No Brand Con has kept an ongoing storyline with a revolving cast of mascot characters. The story starts online before the con, and then concludes with live performers during the event.

For the first couple of years the con did this, it was produced almost like an Alternate Reality Game through the forums, but starting around year six shifted to telling the stories through what is effectively a web series. For seventeen cons (including the upcoming one this year), the con has told (with varying levels of complexity) twelve stories, ten of which were done in the format of the web series. I was involved in the production of eight of these web series, but only really wrote or co-wrote six of them. While that means I'm probably the dominant voice in the fiction, I only really had control over the continuity for half of these stories.

On quite a few occasions, I was working within the restrictions of writers who came before me. Like there was a major plot hole in No Brand Con 2005's "BrandCorp" storyline where a major character (Wilson Oakes) disappeared between Opening Ceremonies and the Cosplay Contest intermission at the con. Since the other significant villain from that story (Executron) kept appearing, we just told people Wilson Oakes had been killed off during the con, and made jokes about it. When we revisited BrandCorp again in 2011, I made one of those jokes canon in a video that recapped the earlier story to close the plot-hole.

In other cases, later writers made changes which will complicate future storylines. Like, Duct Tape Boy flies a No Brand Hero owned spaceship for the No Brand Con 2009 storyline (which I co-wrote). Yet in the No Brand Con 2016 storyline (which I was not involved in), Duct Tape Boy can't drive a car and needs someone else to do it for him. Starting this year, I'm back to writing the thing and we haven't resolved it in-fiction yet. I'm going to probably have to puzzle that out eventually.

I'll probably make a joke about Duct Tape Boy having a "Class S" license which only lets him drive Spaceships and Commercial Vehicles over 26,000 pounds or something.

Finally, there's just the complication of doing a zero-budget web series over a period of time this long. Getting consistent performers is hard. The one reason the Gardening Ninja shows up so much in the web episodes is, frankly, because I play him. Besides the six years I helped come up with the story, I helped edit and produce another two. I was just around. To lift the curtain a bit, some characters like Duct Tape Boy can be recast. While there have only been a small number of "main" Duct Tape Boys, I think like eight different people have played the character in some capacity at this point?

Most characters have visible faces though, so recasting isn't an option. Often we just write around this (including only the available cast in the plot). Other times it introduces plot issues. The second incarnation of Greenboy, for example, was initially played by Conner Vail. I can't remember why, but for some reason Conner wasn't going to be available to play the character anymore. Knowing this ahead of time though, we wrote into the No Brand Con 2011 plot that he was captured by BrandCorp and physically transformed ala-Captain America (or as I usually reference, Bo Abobo from the Double Dragon movie) in that year's third episode. David "Mousse" Janacek took over the character for a few years, and all was well.

Except then Mousse wasn't available anymore.

A few stories just had Greenboy off screen, but this year the story would have felt weird not to use him. Frankly, with the plot being based around Duct Tape Boy's disappearance, not having Greenboy would mean the Gardening Ninja was returning to zero familiar faces. Greenboy needed to be there, and Mousse was not an option... but Conner was. So we introduced the plot element that at some point Greenboy was de-transformed. We don't know how yet, and maybe we'll never explain the events that lead to it.

But hey, it's in the story now.

I mean, I guess it helps that the rules to our world are a little absurdist. I mean, ostensibly it's a cast of C-list superheroes who (in canon) help run an Anime convention while fighting off Egyptian Space Mummies and an evil, tiny robot. Some other writers (*cough*STAN*cough*) have gone a little bit too absurdist, but overall it kind of works.

It's just a massive pain to figure out what the heck actually happened sometimes though.

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Go North

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Trae's Blog

The Challenges of Writing in a Shared Fictional Universe With a Long Running Story ( February 27th 2018 )

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