| Glossary | Map | Rules & Regulations |

Rules and Regulations - Odessa

Jump to:
| General Rules | Abandoned Characters | Gods | Environs | Communication |
| Death of Characters | Magic | Crystalline Power | Were-creatures | Battles |
| Character Sheets | Critiques | Illustrators | Chats |

All potential participants are required to be over the age of eighteen, unless formal consent is given by a parent or guardian and approved by the editor/publisher.

All characters in the shared-world project must be completely original, and created by the author who will be utilizing them.

Odessa, the planet, contains one known landmass, Volante, a magical island continent where your creations can live and seek out fantasy adventures with other characters.

Writing Format: For distribution via e-mail your submission should be in Courier 12 pitch, single-spaced. Let us endeavor to write our tales in a professional manner. It is the editor's intention that the 12 best tales will become a published entity.

Should the shared-world tales be published in written format, the fees paid to authors shall be two contributor copies, with additional copies available at discount.

Generalized Rules:

Your character or creation cannot kill another author's character without his or her written permission. Such request to kill a character must be sent DOlarnick@aol.com. I will forward your request to the author and his/her reply to you directly.

In other words, only the creator of a character may choose to kill their creation.

Abandoned Characters:

A character shall be deemed abandoned if the author fails to post within a given period of time (usually 30-45 days). Once your character is deemed or declared abandoned, then the hunt is on. Vampires will seek them out; werewolves will catch their scent and track the character down, or an avenging dragon will make that abandoned character "toast."

In a worst-case scenario, E'lisha, The Blood Avenger, (a/k/a Blood Assassin) will be assigned the task of seeing to it that the abandoned character receives a just and honorable end, usually in the most horrific manner possible.

Every sanctioned member of this shared world milieu will be assigned a specific time in which to post a finished copy of their work (14 days). Should you fail to post within the allotted time period control of the world will pass to another author.

These rules are fairly well established in shared-world projects, but will continue to evolve with the development of the world of Odessa.

You cannot refer to any other fantasy world, folder, publication or magazine in your story line.

Supreme Beings, Gods, and She-gods:

You can create these "beings." They can be all-powerful, but only as it concerns your personal characters. Should a group and/or individual author decide to accept that particular supreme being for the sake of the story line, then the Supreme Being will be able to exert his/her all powerful force upon those characters, but cannot kill them unless notification is made and permission granted.

Environment and Environs:

You may create any surroundings you desire, a castle, an inn, a valley, a town, a kingdom, whatever you yearn for, however, before you do so, you must notify the editor/publisher of your request, as a map is being prepared as you read this, and your area must be charted and properly named and identified.

Collaborative work requires communication:

You must communicate with the author you desire to work with. If you request to use another author's creation (an inn, for example) no prior permission is required, but you cannot change anything within the inn without the original author's permission.

In order for this project to be successful, all writers will need to cooperate with each other.

Death of Characters:

You must be prepared to have some of your characters die in the course of a quest. This is an unfortunate necessity. The odds would be overwhelming that there would be no fatalities in a dangerous adventure.

A party of ten can expect to lose at least three to four of its warriors, bards, knights, paladins, healers and/or - perish the thought - even their trusty scribe.

Each writer will, of course, be at liberty to choose which of his or her characters will fall in the heat of battle.

This world is adult-theme based: Sexual situations will occur. Try to refrain from profane or obscene language, but if it moves the story along, so be it.

Volante is a total fantasy environment, complete with castles, dungeons, dragons, werewolves, vampires, ceremonial kings and queens.

Magic:

Magic is the ruling power supply. Please refrain from using the term "magick" as that is a term-of-art created by a published author.

Crystalline Power:

Crystals make up a large part of the background story line. You do not have to use crystals in your story, but be assured they will be part of the overall tale. Odessa is a metaphysical world and crystalline healing methods can facilitate in any number of physical problems.

All were-creatures are allowed:

There is a kingdom of web-walkers and a kingdom worshiping serpentine gods.

Battles:

It is hoped, for the sake or realism, that our heroes have the ability to outfight ten well-armed and well-equipped warriors, hand-to-hand, sword-to-sword. However, battles in which full-scale massacres occur are, of course, permitted. If you, as the author/writer determine that your character should destroy more than the given number of ten, then feel free to write your story using any number of adversaries you wish to dispose of.

Wizards, of necessity, must have more power, but should be made to suffer a loss of "something" when using this type of unlimited power.

Character Sheet:

You must supply Scribal Tales with a character sheet for each character you are using, except for those who are "passing through." Character sheets are posted on the web site. Please visit the cast of characters page to get an idea of the type of characters that are living in this world.

Critiques:

Be prepared to receive and give critiques. This is the lifeblood of any writing group. No one-liners, please. After all, you are a writer and should be able to comment in brief detail. Do not attack the author. Only the story and the writing style may be commented upon.

Poets: Poets are particularly welcomed as bards. Please compose your poetry about the person and places being written about.

Illustrators:

If you wish to use the site's illustrator, please feel free to contact him personally. If you wish to illustrate your own characters, that is perfectly permissible, but the right to publish them remains with the publisher and editor. However, if you have gone to the trouble of producing an illustration, the editor and publisher (Daniel Olarnick) will endeavor to publish the illustration along with your legend.

Chats:

Once a month, if possible, there will be an on-line discussion concerning Odessa.

Posting to the Website: Each chapter, upon completion, will be circulated to the "group" via e-mail. Each member of the group will then have the opportunity to critique and offer suggestions for rewrites. After rewriting, the chapter will be posted on the web site, subject to time available.

E-mail notification will be circulated to all members of this project whenever the site is updated. You will receive this information in a publication called, "The Scribes Gazette."

The posted writings become the property of Scribal Tales. Should there be a publication of these shared-world tales, each author will receive two contributor copies.

As editor, I am looking for fantasy manuscripts that tell an interesting tale, using proper grammar and punctuation. I prefer steady writers, no one-timers.

Please do not post anything you have written in other folders.

Do not use other author's creations, names, places, et cetera.

You must spell check your submissions.

If you have any specific questions, please write me and I will attempt to answer your inquiries promptly.

There will be no fee paid to any writer who submits work to the shared writing world of Odessa.

Scribal Tales has the exclusive distribution rights to these tales.

To commence your tale have your character or characters arrive at the Black Dragon Inn, where you will meet "Karl Strange" and a bevy of other characters (created by our resident author, Janice Jackson) who inhabit the island continent of Volante and more specifically the mystical Talos Valley.

(Janice Jackson is an experience shared-world author who will be delighted to work with you in developing tales of adventure that will bring your characters to life.)

Daniel Olarnick, Editor and Publisher of Scribal Tales

Back to the top