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 Welcome to HyperFiction, a game where we flex our funny bones and work together to write a comedy story! HyperFiction is a Comedy Writing Game™ I used to play at Heckler’s Online, way way back when AOL switched over to a front page of colorful buttons that lead you to a variety of terrible internet hangouts. I have no idea where the name came from, but figured I would maintain it to start, at least, in the off chance that anyone remembers this old game and is drawn in by the thread title. (As an aside, if any of you happened to be named IcyMonkey, MongooseDM, GZThompson, or Ryana21, 15 year old me says hello and would like to catch up). HOW IT WORKS HyperFiction is, at its core, a writing collaboration based around creating funny stories. I’ll pull a quote from one ‘MastiffPoo’ off our old off-site Tripod page to explain (with some modifications): 1997 posted:Welcome! The rules for this game are pretty simple, so let's get right into it. Below our OP, you'll see our most recent story. It's funny (and modest). It's also not finished. Read it until you can't read no mo', and then it’s your turn to submit how you think the story should continue! Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version since I know writers are the worst readers, second only to English teachers (LOOK AT ALL THE LITERARY HUMOR ALREADY!): 1. People post a whole bunch of plot beginnings, the last plot-ender chooses the new plot beginning and explains why they chose it. 2. The person who wrote the beginning gets points redeemable for jack poo poo and then watches in despair as people submit horrible followups until the deadline. 3. Said poor sap chooses the next continuation to the story and then passes a bag of points and the torch of probable alcoholism to the winner and the process repeats. 4. At some point someone decides enough is enough and an ending is chosen. Return to step 1 and repeat! SOMEONE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT POINTS That's right! Whenever you win a plot or do something awesome, the Host of the Mostment can assign Points, completely at their discretion. We'll be keeping a running tally of our Point Leaders so that dick waving and ridicule can commence! As soon as you submit an entry for a week, you get added to our leaderboard, even if you didn't receive any points. (Sad for you.) How do you get points, you ask? -If your entry was chosen as the story continuation, you'll get a nifty 50 points, as well as the privilege of being the host for the next round! -If you write the ending to a story, you'd get 100 points. You always have the option of writing an ending, although usually the current host will say when one is wanted. -If we're starting over and your plot beginning gets chosen, you also receive a whopping 100 points! -If you don't enter at all, you'll get 0 points! Those are the minimum points you'd get for winning. Hosts also often give out bonus points for runners-up and things like that, and can also take away points from people if they are feeling extra malicious (or are up against some extremely profound bullshit writing).  BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Sometimes two submissions are turned in that are just too funny to pass up. In this case, the Host of the Mostment has the option of creating the much lauded PLOT SPLIT! Plot splits work as follows: To see our hero eviscerated for his flaws, click here! For a gentler, happier place, read on! At that point the hot mess of having submissions for two or three or four plots at once occurs and we get multiple hosts and it should be a giant shitshow but that’s my problem to figure out in my copious amounts of free time, not yours. As plots slowly end one at a time we’ll shift our focus to the remaining ones (rather than trying to start up new stories in the middle of the ongoing one) until everything is wrapped up nicely and we’re back to Square 1. SOMETHINGS OF NOTE HyperFiction works best when you loosely base it around the main tenant of improvisational comedy: Say “yes.”. If several writers have very nicely given us a fantastic lead up of our heroine’s struggle against the Underground Sandwich Cartel, it’s a little rude to start your submission off with her unexpectedly getting run over by a mack truck and then a shift of character to her sentient shoe which was orphaned back home. That’s not to say that these things can’t be funny, but the main thing is that although it is a game where we compete with each other for sweet, sweet points on our list of Accolades of Arbitrarily Assigned Awesomeness (And Alliteration…Again), ultimately it’d be nice if we did that rarest of things: actually write a story that is funny and not a giant mess. (It is rare, trust me.) Unlike some of our other lovely writing contests like ThunderDome! or the new GamerDome, there are no penalties for being awful or flakey. You won’t get your sweet avatar whisked away, you probably won’t get Toxxed if you’re a shithead who backs out after swearing you’ll write something this time. You will get ridiculed and berated the next time you show your face (or even if you don’t), and you might even get a scathing critique from our Host of the Mostment, but beyond that this is a kinder, gentler place (at least in terms of lasting digital repercussions.) I’ll take it upon myself for now to compile things from hosts weekly into the reserved posts below, meaning that until I get a better idea on how to run this we won’t have more than 2 plot splits at a time (probably a good idea to start anyway). I’ll also host the first story, details to follow in Reserved Post #1. Happy Writing, Terribles~ DISCLAIMER: I in no way, shape, or form own or am affiliated with the creation of the original HyperFiction or the Heckler's Online conglomeration, and I hope this poo poo isn't copyrighted anywhere, but it'd be nice if I didn't get sued!
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Jan 10, 2015 02:13
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 05:40 |
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OUR CURRENT STORY: Shiver Me Duckies Host of the Mostment: Maugrim CURRENT DEADLINE: TBD It's good to have swag, Captain Scallywag thought as he turned away from the buxom readhead that lay to his right, reached over the buxom blonde and fished for the swaying box of cigars on the nightstand. Empty jars of rum fell off to both sides, clattering across the floor, rolling back and forth, back and -- Wait, "swaying"? The door to the Captain's cabin burst open and Captain Scallywag stomped outside, infusing the salty air with a manly odor of rum, sweat and adventure. First Mate Snooters, who'd always had the annoying habit of inadvertedly walking up on you from behind, screamed a surprise greeting in Scallywag's ear and raised his hand to a salute. Captain Scallywag swatted it aside. "We're pirates, dipshit," he said. "S-s-sorry, Captain," Snooters said. "Why are we out at sea?" "You gave order to s-s-sail, Captain." "I did no--" Scallywag held in. Actually, the last few days were kind of a haze. "Uhh... yes, of course. Good on you, doing the thing I said you should do!" There was a commotion starboard. Sailors had lined up along the reel, hooting and cheering at something out at sea. "What's all this?" Scallywag roared. He pushed his men aside and froze in place. Ducks. Feathery little agents of doom, twitching their razor-sharp bills left and right, fluttering their wings, ready to take off and pinch any foolish Captains that woul obstruct their nebulous agenda. Ducks. Why did it have to be ducks? "We're getting close to Duck Island, sir," one sailor said. "Turn around!" Captain Scallywag totally didn't screech like a frightened schoolgirl. "But Captain, the treasure!" "Treasure?" "You said there was treasure to be found on Duck Island," another sailor said. A third sailor stepped up. "There will be treasure, won't there, Captain?" They looked at him with childlike anticipation. Captain Scallywag couldn't disappoint his men. Not if he didn't want to risk a sharp increase in fatal "accidents" amongst the ship's management staff. "Straight ahead to Duck Island!" he said. May God have mercy on our souls. (Entenzahn) The buxom redhead stretched languorously and fell out of the hammock. "gently caress," she said. "No time for that," said Captain Scallywag, helping her up. Her name was Vivien and she was his favourite bed partner at the moment. The buxom blonde had her uses, but being composed largely of straw and rubber, was unsuited to his current needs. "You have to tell me why the hell I've brought us to Duck Island." "Um." She said. "Something about payback?" "No no no. Treasure. I said treasure, right?" "Um... maybe? You said gently caress a lot. And duck. gently caress ducks, was the general tendency of your argument." She gave up a futile search for clothes and wrapped herself in a bedsheet. "And their luck. gently caress ducks and their luck." Of course. He'd nearly forgotten. The gambling ring. Half his fortune, gone in a single unlucky toss of the bones. The quackling mockery of the audience as Captain Blackbeak swept up the chest of jewels and waddled off into the night. "In that case," he said, "we're going to need a plan." He swept his hat onto his head and Vivien into a theatrical kiss. His hat fell off and rolled under the bed. "Well done, sir!" cried Snooters, applauding enthusiastically. "Snooters, get the hell out of my cabin." "Aye aye, cap'n." "And get everyone armed. That treasure will be guarded by fowl sorcery, mark my birds... er, words." (Maugrim) Quidthulhu fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 10, 2015 02:13
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Reserved for current Plot Split 1.
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Jan 10, 2015 02:13
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Reserved for current Plot Split 2.
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Jan 10, 2015 02:13
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What the gently caress, go big or go home, reserved for current Plot Split 3.
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Jan 10, 2015 02:13
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ACCOLADES OF ARBITRARILY ASSIGNED AWESOMENESS (AND ALLITERATION...AGAIN) 1. Entenzahn - 100 pts 2. Poison Mushroom - 55 pts 3. Maugrim - 45 pts 4. Juanito - 10 pts 5. Sitting Here - 7 pts Quidthulhu fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 10, 2015 02:29
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Nice submissions so far! Just in case anyone didn't see, I moved the deadline to Monday for a faster turnaround to start!
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Jan 10, 2015 22:09
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Picking the story starter tonight, anyone else interested in submitting a starter do so before midnight PST~
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Jan 13, 2015 03:05
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Week I Judgement Thanks to those of you who stepped up and submitted story beginnings! I'm looking forward to seeing where we go from here! The best thing is that every story left us with places to go, which I love! Everyone who participated gets 5 points for creating entries that made me want to read more and to find out what was going on. Sitting Here gets an extra 2 points for Snuffurglorg, a word I imagine would be commonplace if Dr. Seuss wrote Cthulhu fan fiction. Poison Mushroom gets a whopping 50 points for a story starter that I REALLY enjoyed and almost picked, but felt would be a little too hard to pull off right now. I'm hoping to keep it in the anals [sic] of posteriority [sic] in hopes that some future Host will snatch it up. Our winner, numero uno story starter, and first host that's not me (thank god) is Entenzahn, who somehow stalked me hard enough to find out I have a secret love of pirates speaking far too intelligently for their likely historical socioeconomic situation and thinking in sentence fragments that suddenly change the direction of their speech. You earned your 100 points, buddy, and I'm looking forward to submitting something m'self. Alas, I am taking 5 points away from you for forcing me to open two drat windows next to each other to format all the italics in your story. This nearly was yours, sir. I will let Ent take over from here with smug, and I'll even let him set the deadline. Unless I page him to the thread and he, well, doesn't, in which case I guess I'll set the deadline and PM him crankily a bunch of times. HyperFiction! Quidthulhu fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 09:18
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 05:40 |
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We'll try again some other time, maybe reviving this story. Thanks to those who contributed!
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Jan 29, 2015 03:27
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