Willows/IdeaPile
Contents
On CrunchRelay Etiquette & Practice
The CrunchRelay is like a relay race; you run a small part of it and pass over the baton. That's the organising principle from which all of the more specific practices below arise.
Here's the general schema of how to play:
- Someone has set a theme for the relay. That person may also post the first relay-item, but he is not required to.
- Another person posts the next item.
- Repeat 2 until the relay reaches its end. "Another person" means "someone different from the previous person"; generally it's cool to post a couple of times in a relay as long as you space it out.
- The person posting the last relay item has some privileges and responsibilities. He should archive the relay, and can choose between setting the next theme or designating someone to set a theme.
The "theme" is generally a short phrase. I'm gonna call this a "seed" from now on, to make it easier to refer to. You can interpret the seed as liberally as you like; if it's "Agape", then you're free to write about openmouthed surprise or a specific form of love.
Signature
You should place your wiki username after the title of each item you contribute, so we know who to discuss with when commenting.
Specific Formats
ArtifactRelay, HearthstoneRelay & ThaumaturgyRelay
These Relays are 5 items long; the first item is the level-1 item (or ritual) and they increase.
The theme for one of these relays is generally nothing but a seed, but you may specify a specific level (N/A, for instance) or something else as well (Warstrider weapons, made of red jade, the Roseblack's property)...
- I think it's pretty neat to make items for these themes that go together, and interact in fun ways, but it's by no means mandatory or even expected. - willows
CharmRelay
CharmRelays are 5 Charms long. The Charms should be connected in a tree.
The theme for a CharmRelay should, in addition to the seed, specify its heritage (or explicitly defer that decision to the first poster). We don't define "Charm" strictly; this is also the Relay for Arcanoi, Paths, &c. You can, but don't have to, specify a Trait basis for the Charms; you can also specify how advanced (or not-advanced) the Charms in question should be.
You can also set the heritage as "multiple types" or "charms for this specific entity", for instance. Multiple type Charms obviously don't have to be in the same tree; specific-entity Charms can, but I wouldn't necessarily mandate it. (See CharmRelay/DesperateSurvival, CharmRelay/Understanding Blood.)
- I think "mixed type" relays are less fun because it's much harder to riff off other peoples' ideas. - willows
It's kinda lame to speedbump prior Charms in a Relay; try to design after Dragonblooded Charms, going off on slight tangents, rather than simply improving upon the functionality of what preceded you.
Charm trees generally grow upward in this Relay. However, if the Relay begins branching backward or something, that's okay; simply use the numbering procedure outlined below in MartialArtsRelay.
MartialArtsRelay
One of these Relays is as long as the theme specifies. The Charms are connected in a Martial Arts style. We assume that it's of standard structure (short introductory portion, Form, advanced portion, pinnacle) unless the theme specifies some other.
The theme for a MartialArtsRelay should specify the art's circle as well as a seed. It should also specify the art's length, or a point at which the relay is considered concluded. The theme doesn't generally include things such as armour compatibility or form weapons, but these could conceivably be used as theme elements (e.g., "Ninja Tathagata: This style uses shurikens and emphasises universal compassion").
- Experience shows that 7 to 8 Charms is the upper limit for continued interest in a theme, barring at least one extremely interested participant. For styles that should, by concept, be very large, the theme should probably set a point at which the relay ends, rather than requiring style completion. - willows
It's not necessary to write the Charms for such a Relay in strict bottom-up order; often, it helps the Relay to have cohesion if the Form is written quite early in the style. It's sometimes difficult to design a Form that interacts positively with the other Charms if very many of them are posed before the Form appears. The contributor who writes the Form should also specify the form weaponry and armour interaction of the style; post these in the theme heading, so they are easy to find.
For historical purposes, a Charm in this Relay should be numbered (manually, don't use #); then, if the Relay develops in a complex way, one can trace its development once the Relay is completed and the Charms are rearranged to follow standard order. Re-ordering the Charms properly is one of the responsibilities of the last poster.
The same is true for capstones; sometimes these are good for setting a development path for the lesser Charms of the style.
SpellRelay
These contain between 6 and 8 spells.
A SpellRelay proceeds in circles, starting at the First Circle and ascending. Within each circle, a sorcerous and necromantic spell must be present, each from a different contributor. The first and second circles may optionally contain an appropriate protocol. If the next circle is begun, then the opportunity to include one of these protocols is lost. The Relay finishes upon completion of the Third Circle.
The reason for this is that autobotian material is not sufficiently widespread to make it mandatory; it would introduce undesirable delays, but has a natural place in the SpellRelay and excluding it entirely would be a needless snubbing of autobot fans.
Feedback
This looks brilliant, and I believe would form a good replacement for the body of the CrunchRelay page (with some minor tweaks). I would recommend reintroducing the numbering for the Martial Arts and Charm Relays, adding a mention of them here; it might also be a good idea that it's good practice to offer theme selection to another person if you dictated the last one. I've put forward a writeup for the Spell Relay below. I found it difficult to summarise, so the text is quite klutzy - fixes are most welcome...DeathBySurfeit
(snipped DBS's SpellRelay writeup)
Cool, I've made the additions you suggested; how's the SR writeup look? w
Looks great, and I like the justification text. I've made a few further modifications for clarity, as well as removing a mostly-speculative sentence. I believe the Thaumuturgy Relay is fairly self-explanatory, and have added it alongside the Charm and Hearthstone relays accordingly..DeathBySurfeit
I want to dump some of that clunky alchemical jargon, for symmetry and clarity. I think fans of the material should recognise "weaving" and we don't use terms such as "emerald circle" or "void circle". w
I'd personally maintain 'protocol' - it's the term by which people know the spells best. If you put 'alchemical protocol', you're much more likely to have it recognised as what it is than 'weaving'; only someone that knows the books very well will be familiar with the term 'weaving', even though it seems simpler. Moreover, I would expect people to know what a void circle necromancy spell is if they're going to contribute to the SpellRelay...DeathBySurfeit
Let's go with "protocol" then. w
Edited in accordingly...DeathBySurfeit
Cool. Anything else (anyone?) w
