The Assignment:

I decided to do The Role-Playing Game as my first ds106 assignment for the semester. The instructions for this are long:

Inspired by role-playing websites, where participants create a character for themselves and “role-play” said character. Each post is a short piece of fictional writing, but unique in that each entry is supposed to purposely intertwine with the one before and after it (all written by different people!). How? Each time your entry starts, reference what the previous person’s post dealt with, and when it ends leave something open for someone else to jump in. For websites, they usually stick to a set genre (fantasy, sci-fi etc.) and rules, but for this assignment I’m thinking of going crazy and setting no rules whatsoever. If someone writes about a cowboy in one post, go ahead and play a space alien in the next.

So, lemme start this one off then: “Joe the clown was not a happy camper this morning. This was evidenced by the fact that he had put four lumps of sugar into his coffee, instead of the regular two. He only ever broke his two-sugars rule on special occasions, so going by that particular string of logic, this was a very special occasion indeed. Nevertheless Joe had little time to sulk, hunched over his kitchen table with remnants of buttered toast still clinging to the sides of his lips. And so it was that with a labored sigh he propped himself up off his seat and began the dreaded walk towards the front door, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a red rubber nose as he did so. He finished fixing the rubber implement on his own nose at about the same moment that his other hand fell on the cold, brass doorknob that led to the outside world. He paused for a moment, just a little longer than what he would usually allow himself (but this was a special occasion, remember). He then took a deep breath, turned the knob and stepped outside into the cold chilly morning air. It was time to have a word with the neighbours who had kept him up all night…”

My Response to the Assignment:

The moment that Joe stepped over the threshold of his apartment, the blinds on his neighbor’s window quickly flicked shut. “He’s bound to head over here to complain.” Victoria assured herself as she tugged her black leather gloves so they fit ever more snugly upon her fingertips. Her eyes flicked from the window down to the floor, where the motionless figures of the home’s actual inhabitants were sprawled.  She had only precious little time before the effects of the drugs wore off. She stepped gracefully but purposefully over their slumbering bodies as she moved on to the task at hand.

She quietly traversed the room until she was poised behind the front door. Reaching into the pocket of her coat she withdrew a rather large syringe, filled halfway with an opaque yellow liquid. She was both delicate and determined as she removed the cap and flicked the tip of the half-inch needle with the back of her gloved fingertips. A little pressure on the end of the syringe with her thumb forced a single droplet of liquid out of its tip. It was at this moment she heard Joe’s steps come to a halt on the other side door. The edges of her lips tugged upwards into a satisfied smirk.

In one swift motion the door swung open, and before the clown could react they were pressed up against one another. A passer-by could have mistaken this as an embrace from afar; Victoria, much shorter than Joe, looked like she had rushed into the arms of her lover. However, hidden betwixt their mashed up bodies her hand held and empty syringe, its needle buried deep into the clown’s chest. She wrapped her free arm around his back as his form slumped lifelessly onto hers, and dragged him into the home as the door shut behind them.

The Process:

Since my camera isn’t charged and I still have yet to reinstall Photoshop after reformatting my computer, I decided to find an assignment that wouldn’t require any visuals. I stumbled upon the roleplaying post assignment and figured that it was perfect.

My next dilemma came with integrating the As We May Think article by Vannever Bush. According to my poorly organized notes from class, I needed to integrate the reading into the assignment. This threw off my original ideas for what sort of character I was going to build for my post. I was initially assuming fantasy based and male, as I’ve usually role-played both of those things.

Then it hit me. Though not quite exactly the same, the cool logic with which Bush explains his thoughts on scientific advances and the Memex reminded me of a character I once played in a Hunter: The Vigil game. My character, Victoria Powers, was sharp and ruthless in the pursuit of pharmaceutical advances. So I chose to write the post as Victoria. Sure, the connection is tenuous at best, but it was the most inspiring at the time. If I’ve gotten the assignment completely backwards, I’ll just redo it.

Even though I originally set out to ignore the initial post given in the assignment, I ended up integrating it when I remembered that Victoria’s vehicle was an ice cream truck. Her ice cream truck is unrelated to my post above, but it’s what got me on the train of thought that ended up integrating Joe the clown. I wrote this post over the course of two days. The first paragraph and the first half of the second paragraph came to me and then I took a break to finish the second and start the third. I wanted to leave it open at the end for the couple to wake up. I also didn’t want to specify the serum injected into Joe nor whether or not he was dead or unconscious. If anybody continues with the established characters, they can feel free to interpret it as they like.

The Story:

This assignment really appealed to me because I used to roleplay online a lot. It was actually part of my first experiences on the internet and what really got me hooked when I was about 8 or 9. While I used to roleplay in chatrooms I’m also familiar with forum based RP. So seeing the example post on the ds106 site was extremely nostalgic. I’m a bit rusty, so I don’t think my post today was that great, but it was really fun to try my hand at it.

I’m hoping for the next assignments I’ll be able to experiment more with visuals. All I need to do now is charge my camera and reinstall photoshop… Since I didn’t do that over the weekend like I should have.

The Assignment:

I decided to do The Role-Playing Game as my first ds106 assignment for the semester. The instructions for this are long:

Inspired by role-playing websites, where participants create a character for themselves and “role-play” said character. Each post is a short piece of fictional writing, but unique in that each entry is supposed to purposely intertwine with the one before and after it (all written by different people!). How? Each time your entry starts, reference what the previous person’s post dealt with, and when it ends leave something open for someone else to jump in. For websites, they usually stick to a set genre (fantasy, sci-fi etc.) and rules, but for this assignment I’m thinking of going crazy and setting no rules whatsoever. If someone writes about a cowboy in one post, go ahead and play a space alien in the next.

So, lemme start this one off then: “Joe the clown was not a happy camper this morning. This was evidenced by the fact that he had put four lumps of sugar into his coffee, instead of the regular two. He only ever broke his two-sugars rule on special occasions, so going by that particular string of logic, this was a very special occasion indeed. Nevertheless Joe had little time to sulk, hunched over his kitchen table with remnants of buttered toast still clinging to the sides of his lips. And so it was that with a labored sigh he propped himself up off his seat and began the dreaded walk towards the front door, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a red rubber nose as he did so. He finished fixing the rubber implement on his own nose at about the same moment that his other hand fell on the cold, brass doorknob that led to the outside world. He paused for a moment, just a little longer than what he would usually allow himself (but this was a special occasion, remember). He then took a deep breath, turned the knob and stepped outside into the cold chilly morning air. It was time to have a word with the neighbours who had kept him up all night…”

My Response to the Assignment:

The moment that Joe stepped over the threshold of his apartment, the blinds on his neighbor’s window quickly flicked shut. “He’s bound to head over here to complain.” Victoria assured herself as she tugged her black leather gloves so they fit ever more snugly upon her fingertips. Her eyes flicked from the window down to the floor, where the motionless figures of the home’s actual inhabitants were sprawled.  She had only precious little time before the effects of the drugs wore off. She stepped gracefully but purposefully over their slumbering bodies as she moved on to the task at hand.

She quietly traversed the room until she was poised behind the front door. Reaching into the pocket of her coat she withdrew a rather large syringe, filled halfway with an opaque yellow liquid. She was both delicate and determined as she removed the cap and flicked the tip of the half-inch needle with the back of her gloved fingertips. A little pressure on the end of the syringe with her thumb forced a single droplet of liquid out of its tip. It was at this moment she heard Joe’s steps come to a halt on the other side door. The edges of her lips tugged upwards into a satisfied smirk.

In one swift motion the door swung open, and before the clown could react they were pressed up against one another. A passer-by could have mistaken this as an embrace from afar; Victoria, much shorter than Joe, looked like she had rushed into the arms of her lover. However, hidden betwixt their mashed up bodies her hand held and empty syringe, its needle buried deep into the clown’s chest. She wrapped her free arm around his back as his form slumped lifelessly onto hers, and dragged him into the home as the door shut behind them.

The Process:

Since my camera isn’t charged and I still have yet to reinstall Photoshop after reformatting my computer, I decided to find an assignment that wouldn’t require any visuals. I stumbled upon the roleplaying post assignment and figured that it was perfect.

My next dilemma came with integrating the As We May Think article by Vannever Bush. According to my poorly organized notes from class, I needed to integrate the reading into the assignment. This threw off my original ideas for what sort of character I was going to build for my post. I was initially assuming fantasy based and male, as I’ve usually role-played both of those things.

Then it hit me. Though not quite exactly the same, the cool logic with which Bush explains his thoughts on scientific advances and the Memex reminded me of a character I once played in a Hunter: The Vigil game. My character, Victoria Powers, was sharp and ruthless in the pursuit of pharmaceutical advances. So I chose to write the post as Victoria. Sure, the connection is tenuous at best, but it was the most inspiring at the time. If I’ve gotten the assignment completely backwards, I’ll just redo it.

Even though I originally set out to ignore the initial post given in the assignment, I ended up integrating it when I remembered that Victoria’s vehicle was an ice cream truck. Her ice cream truck is unrelated to my post above, but it’s what got me on the train of thought that ended up integrating Joe the clown. I wrote this post over the course of two days. The first paragraph and the first half of the second paragraph came to me and then I took a break to finish the second and start the third. I wanted to leave it open at the end for the couple to wake up. I also didn’t want to specify the serum injected into Joe nor whether or not he was dead or unconscious. If anybody continues with the established characters, they can feel free to interpret it as they like.

The Story:

This assignment really appealed to me because I used to roleplay online a lot. It was actually part of my first experiences on the internet and what really got me hooked when I was about 8 or 9. While I used to roleplay in chatrooms I’m also familiar with forum based RP. So seeing the example post on the ds106 site was extremely nostalgic. I’m a bit rusty, so I don’t think my post today was that great, but it was really fun to try my hand at it.

I’m hoping for the next assignments I’ll be able to experiment more with visuals. All I need to do now is charge my camera and reinstall photoshop… Since I didn’t do that over the weekend like I should have.