ULTIMATE BRIKWARS

[samuelzz10]

I really would like to do this because I do know all of the stuff that happens, but because a lot of people like to use cop outs and stuff only happens the way people want it to (Natalya could only die in one of her own forum battles) the whole brikverse is in a forever so called "advancing storyline" that is actually less moving than a tortoise with 2 legs and arthritis. If a second "Just about anything within reason goes" Universe was made, I think it would be much better. (unless an asshole killed all the major leaders and said , not that it's bad but just makes any hope of an interesting plot go away)

[aoffan23]

If you're so concerned about continuing a story, then continue your own. If other people don't move theirs along, then don't include them in your story. If all you have to complain about is that other people aren't moving their stories at your pace (or don't really like to bother with stories in the first place, and would rather just play the game), then how can that possibly warrant an alternate universe?

[samuelzz10]

If you're so concerned about continuing a story, then continue your own. If other people don't move theirs along, then don't include them in your story. If all you have to complain about is that other people aren't moving their stories at your pace (or don't really like to bother with stories in the first place, and would rather just play the game), then how can that possibly warrant an alternate universe?

Jesus, I'm almost starting to suspect you just like ripping on my ideas. A lot of people are continuing some stories at a fast rate, like arkbrik has started the pwny thing with silva and that is actually going somewhere but at the same time the immortal war hasn't moved for the past 3 or so years. I know warhead is busy, and has things to to but that's the problem. Nobody is moving anything. I know I could just play the game, but a story makes it so much better. Heck, every battle me and my friend play determines if a major faction leader is killed for good or not. It has actually inspired us to make some very cool specialized classes, and a huge arms race. Story and lasting conflict brings out the best in battles.

[Colette]

If you're so concerned about continuing a story, then continue your own. If other people don't move theirs along, then don't include them in your story. If all you have to complain about is that other people aren't moving their stories at your pace (or don't really like to bother with stories in the first place, and would rather just play the game), then how can that possibly warrant an alternate universe?

Jesus, I'm almost starting to suspect you just like ripping on my ideas. A lot of people are continuing some stories at a fast rate, like arkbrik has started the pwny thing with silva and that is actually going somewhere but at the same time the immortal war hasn't moved for the past 3 or so years. I know warhead is busy, and has things to to but that's the problem. Nobody is moving anything. I know I could just play the game, but a story makes it so much better. Heck, every battle me and my friend play determines if a major faction leader is killed for good or not. It has actually inspired us to make some very cool specialized classes, and a huge arms race. Story and lasting conflict brings out the best in battles.

It's called the "Immortal War" for a reason, you know.

[Bragallot]

The Immortal War is supposed to be huge. I had my Prussians fight Inquistadores, Immortals, VoL and Brittanians, but it's only supposed to be 'a small part of' the war, which you can choose to contribute to, or not. I'm pretty sure I saw at least a few IW related battles, like Zupponn's for instance. The one with the Flying Ninjas with Top Hats.

[Tzan]

All that intertwined story stuff just sort of happened, it wasn't planned.
Everyone was doing their own thing and then blam! stuff got connected.

You can do whatever you want.
Start stuff in the same area.
Start stuff in a different galaxy.
Start stuff in a different universe.

People will add to it or not. Depends on how awesome they think it sounds or how attached they are to their current army and how much time they have.

If you start it they will come...
...or not... then they laugh at you

[samuelzz10]

I'll post my army soon (as in 5 years from now) and when I do I'll also make an ULTIMATE version, with different stats and distinct characteristics. If it did ever lift off, I think it would need field report and forum battle sub forums, as to not confuse things.

It's called the "Immortal War" for a reason, you know.

You think in a universe where people can make planet sized space ships there would be a way to kill immortals by now. Besides, what about that suspension thing?

[aoffan23]

Jesus, I'm almost starting to suspect you just like ripping on my ideas.

Well, I do, but only because I think most of them suck.

Nobody is moving anything.

Because they don't want to move their own stories. Let them do what they want with their armies, and you do what you want with yours. Why do you love making everything so complicated? Mike created BrikWars with the intent of letting everyone create everything for themselves. The only units in the rulebook are template units (minifig, hero, officer, etc.), and the only backstory is that minifigs fight because of dice rolled by their human overlords.

I know I could just play the game, but a story makes it so much better. Heck, every battle me and my friend play determines if a major faction leader is killed for good or not. It has actually inspired us to make some very cool specialized classes, and a huge arms race. Story and lasting conflict brings out the best in battles.

If that's how you like to play, then great. You can keep doing that, and I'll keep making tiny armies that have no relation to one another.

[Colette]

It's called the "Immortal War" for a reason, you know.

You think in a universe where people can make planet sized space ships there would be a way to kill immortals by now. Besides, what about that suspension thing?

Hey sam, you're not the first one to come up with that idea.

As a solution that won't piss off Warhead, you could capture the core and throw it into a black hole.

[Silverdream]

Which doesn't stop the immortals from getting the core back.

[Colette]

Which doesn't stop the immortals from getting the core back.

If we got the Assyrians, Scythians, and USA to station a massive fleet there, it would.

[Quantumsurfer]

Well, I had something relatively intelligent (I swear) typed out but it took too long and I forgot to copy it. Forum logged me out before I could post it.

Essentially:

In a normal setting, community driven canon is often stifling, especially if that community is very large. Changes have to be formally proposed, reviewed by each member, and then subjected to some democratic process that determines inclusion or exclusion. It can be a slow and cumbersome process. One of the most clever things about BrikWars, though, is its general ability to sidestep that problem neatly. The Brikverse is a universe that has been torn apart and put haphazardly back together thousands of times, recycling elements, warping and changing them, or deleting them entirely from existence. It's riddled with massive distortions in time and space that obliterate logical progressions and allow virtually everything to be true. Here, we have a community which has the potential to be as diverse as all the elements that could fit in the setting and a plot device that gives us carte blanche to do whatever the hell we please. Our canon becomes literally everything we can ram into the setting. The next Reconstruktion might tell of a universe where Star Empires never formed, where warlords control single planets in a bid for galactik domination, or where each "player" controls a small band of survivors on the only populated planet in the universe. Someone puts forth an idea and its well accepted or generally ignored. It doesn't really matter because, either way, both are considered part of our canon. Since BrikWars also incorporates tongue in cheek, commonly, the presence of the community has the power to stamp these ideas with qualifiers that can be used as part of the narrative, such as "this is ossum" or "that happened but the universe decreed it to be stupid and so it didn't have any real effect on anything." In a normal setting, everything goes free for all canon is no real kind of canon at all. It lacks meaning, direction, and a sense of being "official" and codified. It seems nonsensical and without logical internal consistency. In short, just as boring as if there were too much structure because nothing would relate or interact. In BrikWars, however, inconsistency is consistency. The Reconstruktion metaplot allows and provides explanation for virtually any combination of story elements. Putting aside the fact that a universe is infinite for a moment, that concept alone allows any one of us to advance the canon in any way we see fit. The Galaxy Nehellenium or whatever doesn't have to be the center of the universe. These developments will occur naturally, over time, as a collaboration of the community. We have seen this already. Once, there was no such thing as the Immortal War or the Artifakts. To focus on these things as the be all and end all of the Brikverse is a prime example of the Star Wars Syndrome, or Tunnel Vision. Trying to ram every story ever in a five year span and centered around 3 or 4 central ideas without ever branching out is a great way to inspire the very stagnation we're trying to avoid.

Now, I can understand how if you don't have a single storytelling bone in your body you might've hitched your wagon to one of the existing stories. And I can see how it might become frustrating if that story isn't proceeding at a brisk pace, if everyone seems content to leave it at the stage its in, or if there was never developed enough initial content to satisfy. But there are plenty of smaller, no less interesting stories that crop up all the time. I see them often in the Armory, for example. Use those. Or if you can/will write your own stories, why is that not happening? Either way, small ideas can become central themes in very little time with this many people paying attention. And I think that's all that's really required to advance canon...what we're already doing...paying attention and engaging in mutual respect (even if shown in informal and unconventional ways). We can build on one another's ideas, not just with permission but with cooperation. Even if we never get past the "cool story, bro" stage, we're still contributing to the narrative's progression because encouragement is often what kickstarts success.

So, samuelzz10, I think your Ultimate idea is actually a very good one, in the right context. The Brikverse has several principal traits. Broken timeline, spatial distortion, dramatics as a scientific principle, based on construction toys, minifigs who delight in wanton destruction in service to their human overlords, etcetera. All history aside (because it may end up not mattering on reconstrukt), these are ideas that define the setting. If we're going to use these same things to expand the narrative...well, why not just expand the setting to include them? We do have an infinite universe that adheres to few real rules. Anything else is, not seems but is, wholly redundant. However, the creation of a new universe seems warranted if there are a different set of identifying traits. The LEGO Universe, for example, is not focused on destruction but rather on creation.

My question, then, is: what makes the Ultimate Universe unique? What makes it tick? What sets it apart from the Brikverse but not so much a new rulebook would be required to represent it?

Also, you seem to be having plenty of fun already creating your own stories with your friend. Why not present them here as "What If..." stories? Maybe in the battle reports or soap opera boards. I'd be interested in seeing what you've got and it might be funny for other members as well. It wouldn't screw with their stories because it'd all be alternate history theoretical stuff. Stories within the story. Plus, it might inspire someone who is stuck with their story to create a new element. Then we all win.

[Bragallot]

[Natalya]

Correct me if I'm wrong, and no offense here even if I am right because everyone gets booty bothered at some point, but my booty bothered senses are tingling... Samuel, if you fear your stories are insignificant or would be totally overlooked, you're wrong. Post something in the SOB forum and people will read it. This is BrikWars, saying something happened makes it true to some extent, as long as you don't muck with someone else's stuff in a major troll-like way. (See Colette and anti-mortalium.)

Also, I'm not sure why it matters if Natalya dies or not. She is my sig-fig which is slightly different from a hero. Warhead, for example, never truly dies because he is Warhead's sig-fig. His dashing looks (flaming skull-face is totally in these days) make him popular for people to put into forum battles, but it is wrong to kill him because he is a sig-fig so instead the sphincter system was described to explain his appearances everywhere. Bragallot, same thing different explanation, he has a ton of robot clones of himself everywhere. For Major Natalya, she has no explanation like that, but IMO if she died her soul would continue in a sort of Obi-Wan Kenobi type way because of her abilities with the Maytricks let her encode herself into reality (or unreality since this is BrikWars) so she can ressurect herself whenever. But keep in mind, of the special characters, she is probably the most boring and least-developed. The best way to develop a character is to make a small story for them and post it in a forum battle or whatever.

A good example is Captain Roberto. He was a totally unimportant guy in the Prussian Monarchial Conflict who gets killed in battle, but I had him ressurected and his ship restored as the new Lady Vega II for use in one of my forum battles, which I should also point out used the G.R. system to explain why an alliance existed between the Immortals and the Akkadians for my story even though by the time I had done the forum battles the Immortals and Akkadians had long been divided.

[Bragallot]

A good example is Captain Roberto. He was a totally unimportant guy in the Prussian Monarchial Conflict who gets killed in battle, but I had him ressurected and his ship restored as the new Lady Vega II for use in one of my forum battles,

, which was totally awesome, I might add.