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[Sylverone]

I had a flash of inspiration today, and I want carry through on it.

You see, we are a very active storytelling community, and yet these stories, which are written largely for the personal enjoyment of the authors and community, never reach much of an audience. Many of them deserve to. So I have a proposal.

I would like to build a collection of all the good Dwarf Fortress stories, and with the various authors' permissions, turn them into a book.

-Now wait with your objections!

I'm not doing this to make money for myself. Actually, I want all of the proceeds to go directly to Toady, where they can help further the game (and Toady's overall well-being), helping to lead towards the possibility of even greater stories in the future.

My idea for the title of this dwarven compendium is Tales of Dwarves, which we could also translate to dwarven.

Any and all input is welcome. For this to work I would of course need the permission of all authors involved. For right now, though, it's just a suggestion.

EDIT: How's this for awesome?:

~Tales of Dwarves: A tribute to the only video game suitable for miners~

[ May 13, 2008: Message edited by: Sylverone ]

[Dasleah]

Hmmmm. It's certainly an intriguing idea. Personally, I'd love to read a book about the development of Dwarf Fortress, with alternate chapters including stories from the game. It'd be one part Indie game development bible, one part sadistic novel, and all parts awesome.

[Keizo]

Let's not forget some of Toady's awesome story-like dev_nexts, which could be turned into great stories, as well as all of Threetoe's works.

[nagual678]

quote:Originally posted by Dasleah:
<STRONG>Hmmmm. It's certainly an intriguing idea. Personally, I'd love to read a book about the development of Dwarf Fortress, with alternate chapters including stories from the game. It'd be one part Indie game development bible, one part sadistic novel, and all parts awesome.</STRONG>

This is certainly an idea to explore once the game reaches 1.0 status, perhaps as a donation gift to people that give over a certain amount of money.

[Sylverone]

Here's a general idea of the organization I have in mind:

1. Intro - Tells what the book is and gives background info and history of the game. This would contain info so that people would be able to understand DF-specific story elements that otherwise might seem random or peculiar.
2. Great Dwarven Legends - As told by the Dwarves of old. This is for the epic crowd-gathering stories that span pages. Preferably all of these stories would be well-written and complete with endings. Things such as "Boatmurdered" (I hope permissions can be obtained for all of it) and "One Dwarf Against The World" are great examples.
3. Pint-Sized Stories - A section dedicated to the short paragraph-long stories such as the ones found in the wiki.
4. The Broken Records - Supposedly pieces of long-lost records, all of the good-but-incomplete stories could go here.
5. Bearded Remarks - Things said by the community that are amusing and dwarfy enough to deserve a place here. In other words, lots of quotes.
6. Tales of The Immortals - This could be a place for all of Toady's and Threetoe's tales, permission allowing.
7.
8. Profit (sent directly to Toady)

I hope to get this set up so that any royalties this book gets go directly to Toady and Threetoe rather than through me (or anyone else).

quote:This is certainly an idea to explore once the game reaches 1.0 status, perhaps as a donation gift to people that give over a certain amount of money.

That's what I was thinking, but if we plan on having all of the early stories, we need to start cataloging now. The donation gift idea is good as well.

[ May 14, 2008: Message edited by: Sylverone ]

[Javis]

It's all fun and games until someone is making money off of someone else's intellectual property.

[Bullion]

yeah, but he says he'll ask for permission.

[Akroma]

before we can do that, Nist Akath and my Migrursut should be finished

also, it's a book that consists too 100% of inside jokes. No one except the fans will buy it

[Asheron]

Yes, it is an original idea, but I don't think we would have much of an audience, other then us.
But if you are going to do it anyway, feel free to use anything I ever wrote.

[Rictus]

I have my reservations about this. I've been involved in trying (unsuccessfully) to publish stories from a forum before - in this case, Europa Universalis (about 6 years ago, back when they were on its second incarnation). I'm not sure there is enough diversity amongst the stories written, and for a forum we don't produce enough high quality writing.  The EU forums had ten times as many writers, several of which were professionals, but it was decided that there simply wasn't the quality there, and on average they had better stuff than we do.

Don't get me wrong, there are truly awesome pieces out there, but enough for a book? I'm not sure.

In addition, the stories all tend to follow a fairly prescriptive formula.  There are comedies, dramas, etc, but they all largely start the same, and finish similiarly.  And that's cool, but after reading six or seven versions of the same plot (7 dwarves start out.  Fortress grows. Fortress is attacked. Fortress grows.  Fortress peaks. Fortress withers.) is there going to be much desire for many more?

Sorry to be a devils advocate here, feel free to poke holes in my argument and push on regardless.

EDIT: Hell, I'll even help out with editing or anything else if it does succeed.

[ May 14, 2008: Message edited by: Rictus ]

[Jiri Petru]

It might be an e-book, downloadable for several dollars straight from Bay 12 Games webpage. Ebook doesn't cost anything but time to make and is a nice was how to attract more donations.

[Slappy Moose]

I say go for it.

I never check or notice my PMs, so I might as well say go ahead and use my "Zaneg Thazor: Armok Reincarnate" story if you so choose.

Good luck in making this book!

[Appelgren]

quote:Originally posted by Dasleah:
<STRONG>Hmmmm. It's certainly an intriguing idea. Personally, I'd love to read a book about the development of Dwarf Fortress, with alternate chapters including stories from the game. It'd be one part Indie game development bible, one part sadistic novel, and all parts awesome.</STRONG>

Oh! "The Making of Dwarf Fortress" is a very intesting concept... While there are some really good interviews with Tarn and Zach out there, and the development pages are great, I want even more details about how Dwarf Fortress came to be! I would gladly pay for such a book...

[Fedor]

I know that it's worth at least doing the first couple of steps required to make such a compilation, especially the first: link to a lot of potentially worthwhile stories and other DF-related writing in a single post, followed by a discussion thread which can be used to suggest new entries and get permissions from authors.  Discussion about what to actually do with the stories merits a separate, cross-linked thread.

As for later steps, the only comment I'd have is that many of the stories use a great many pictures to illustrate what's going on.  This argues in favor of keeping the compilation in electronic form.

[Istrian]

I think some of the pictures will have to be reworked by skilled artists. I mean, I don't think there are that many people (outside these boards) who would understand ascii art. If need be, I can contribute passable handmade maps.