There's no earthly way of knowing...

[luthien]

Which direction are we going?

We don't need much in order to start the story off; mostly it will be make it up as you go, and who knows where we'll end up. But one thing that might be helpful is a general genre/setting. Do y'all have any preferences between modern day, urban fantasy (aka modern day but WITH MAGIC), steampunk, sci-fi, standard fantasy, etc. etc.?

[Robotanist]

For the story genre my vote is for Solarpunk Sci-Fi. Ideally with Transhuman elements.

[Segmentation Fault]

I wanted to post this as a reply to your Draconian rules, but since that's marked as read-only I'll add it here:

All contributors should remember the "yes, and..." rule of improv. That's the idea where you never throw away what your predecessors have done and take the story in a new direction that makes all prior work irrelevant. E.g.

• Author 1: Once upon a time there was a planet populated by adorable sentient bunnies.
• Author 2: One day, an exploration team of humans from earth arrived and made first contact.
• Author 3: At first, the bunnies were suspicious. But they had one weapon the humans could not possibly know about or even understand...
• Author Don't Be This Guy: But then a meteor crashed into the planet, wiping out all life and turning the entire planet into cosmic dust. Earth sent a new team out to explore a planet colonized by sentient dogs which are much cooler.

Each contribution should be the end result of all the previous entries, such that if they had not been written yours would not be possible.

Sound good, moderators? Or should I shut up and let you do your jobs because you already know what you're doing?

Also: Any genre/topic is fine with me. Semper gumby!

[luthien]

I'm...not exactly certain how to unlock threads, but I added a post with your additions.

As far as topic goes, I'm not fussy. I prefer some speculative fiction elements, but sci-fi, fantasy, and/or urban fantasy would all be fine. Urban sci-fi?

[Victor]

Well, my interests are generally in magic, kung fu, and magic kung fu. I am concerned that trying to get too specific or too esoteric with our subject matter might shut some of our participants out.... like me, especially me.

But I'm down for working with anything other people want to introduce.

[Queen Lucy]

I like all genres but lean toward magical stories like LOTR style. Also like crime thriller and suspense.

[outofmeasure_SAD]

I write mainly low fantasy with gothic or horror elements, but I'm open to working on whatever. They way I see it this is a good opportunity to experiment with style and genre and maybe play around in some waters I otherwise would never think of. I think keeping the genre parameters a little bit loose is for the best. Ideally we won't be doing this just one time and everyone will get a chance to work on something fun that they're excited about.

[Victor]

Ideally we won't be doing this just one time and everyone will get a chance to work on something fun that they're excited about.

I am looking forward to inviting you all to my Magical Realm.