So, now that there's a Sixth World Wiki up here, I was thinking about some of the other RPG wikis I hang out at, and the collaborative projects there. I thought of a neat idea for a Wiki project, and was wondering if anyone was interested.

The Exalted RPG Wiki I visited had a neat project they did with Lexicon, where they had A-Z, and starting with A, users would submit one entry. That entry had to have three "phantom link" references related to it, that would be links to their own entries later in the Lexicon. When the group moves onto B, users first call dibs on the existing B phantom links provided from any A entries. A person who wrote the source entry in A can't do his own phantom links, someone else has to do them. Then that person writes the B entry, and the B entry includes three links, one of which is the back link to the A entry, two of which are new ones to future letters. And the process goes on, until you have an encyclopedia of collaborative material. It was really neat developing the Lexicon with other people, and seeing how they would flesh out entries I named as links.

I was thinking a neat thing for the Sixth World Wiki would be to do a colorful "contacts" sort of thing for the Seattle Sprawl. Every contact has 3 "Friends of a friend" contacts, which would be the phantom links. Each contact entry would be a colorful person in the Seattle Sprawl that any GM could use in their own games if they want. And with the Wiki effort, those contacts would have a pre-done web of connections throughout the sprawl to the FoFs.

So, an example:

We start with "A." I put down a description for "Ash - Gang Member", a colorful Barrens ganger. I include three phantom references to his FoFs, a level 1 contact to "Barry - Gun Runner", a level 2 contact to "Chimera - Yakuza Assassin" and a level 3 contact of "DeVille, Roger - Crooked Cop." Other partipants add a few more A entries, with their phantom links, then we move the whole bunch of us onto B. Any of the other users can then do the "Barry" entry (but not me, since I wrote Ash's entry that linked to Barry). All they'd have to take into consideration is that I mentioned that Barry is a gunrunner, and otherwise they have their freedom to develop Barry's personality. Then that person has to list Barry's links. One is already taken care of, the level 1 contact slot is attached to Ash, and should just link back to him. But the author for Barry could then make up two new contacts for the 2 and 3 slots, which would become available phantom entries for future letters, and future authors to do.

Anyway, I think that sort of thing is fun, but it takes other people, so I'm curious if anyone is interested.

Sounds cool, I'm up for that.

I agree, very cool proposition. I think I'm up for it as well. Why don't you get a project page started on the wiki to get things organized around and we can get up the "A" contacts...

I'll work on setting it up as soon as I get enough time free, which should be soon.

I may get rid of the various 1,2,3 levels on the three FoFs for ease in filling in the links between contacts, but I'm not sure. *ponders*

well, if it's easier for you we can settle on a format here and I work up the wiki page once we've figured out how we want to do it.

Well, here is the format that the Exalted Wiki uses for their Lexicon project, which is what I was basing this idea on. Was planning on using a similar format.

Well, here's my go at what I think the format should be like. I've taken the Exalted Wiki rules and what Demonseed has posted above and I suppose some of my own interetation of it all and come up with this.

Demonseed, if I'm off base on any of this let me know.

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Goal: To create a large body of networked contacts in the Seattle shadows which can be drawn on for inspiration and use by GM's.

Also, while the SixthWorld Wiki is an 'in-character' resource the organization page will only be temporary while the project is underway, it will be replaced by an 'in-character' index resource upon initial completion.

Rules:

1. The initial contributors will write entries for 'A'. Each of these will refer and link to three "phantom", not-yet-written entries. This is the first 'turn'. Half these initial phantoms, ideally, would be for 'B'.

2. On subsequent turns, the contributors will write entries for the subsequent letters, each letter being done in order. These new entries will be linked to no less than one preexisting, nonblank entry, as well as two phantoms.

3. Ideally, each contributor will write 26 entries, 1 per letter. Although no limit will placed on the amount of entires per contributor.

4. All of the phantoms for a letter should be filled (or have someone assigned to them) before any new entries are posed for that letter; this only occurs where there are insufficient phantoms. New entries of this sort still have to link to a preexisting entry.

5. The backlink from an entry need not be to the entry that spawned it as a phantom, and the entry need not refer to its backlink explicitly. There's nothing wrong with the first, though, and a lot of fun to be had with the second. (Ex. in Demonseed's explantion above he mentions Barry the Gunrunner, Barry's entry doesn't have to link back to Ash (however it can), but it does have to link back to an already existing entry thus further tangling the web)

6. Anyone is welcome to jump in at any time; you will probably want to jump in at the letter that's being worked on at the moment, and play catchup only if you feel inspired to do so. You're also welcome to contribute intermittently. If you join late and want to play catchup, you can ask for phantoms in letters that have passed in the discussion page.

7. All contacts that are referenced in an entry must be contact's that are written by another contributor. (Unless so few of us work on this that it becomes untenable to do so.)

8. All phantom entried will be assigned to contributors on a first-come-first-served basis. A contributor can only have one reserved entry at a time. To reserve an entry you can update the phantom entry with a note pending the full text.

That sounds perfect, actually.