Outsider's Game Update 8 · 10:00pm Jan 8th, 2015
So I modified Turning Wheel's Epilogue, adding an additional scene.
Looking back upon what I'd done initially, I realized I hadn't wrapped up everything I wanted. But then again, I guess I still haven't. Could have written additional scenes following up on Lyra or the other members of the Mane Six. But as it stood, no really elegant way to include them jumped out at me. So I stuck with one of the bigger lingering plot threads. Sometimes we can't fit everything we want into what we write. More on that when I eventually talk about what I learned making Turning Wheel.
Until then, I've got a couple more things to talk about.
First thing, those Skullgirls one-shots. I've decided I'll definitely be turning them into separate stories, rather than tacking them to the end of Turning Wheel. The thing about Skullgirls/MLP crossovers on this site is there isn't a lot of them. In fact, there are four as far as I can tell (including mine). One of them is a general crossover as I recall, not just Skullgirls, and the other two are...not so great. Neither have updated in forever, and strike me as not being well thought out. I don't want to sound like I'm the only creator taking this matter seriously...but of the 110,000+ words in total of Skullgirls stories on this site, mine makes up 109,000+ of them.
And being as long as it is, it's so involved with itself - and with a generally under-represented character - that it stands to put a lot of Skullgirls fans off. So if I can make these stories as unfettered as possible, I will. They have nothing to do with Turning Wheel anyway, so they must be judged by their own merits.
I have the idea of having one Skullgirls character interact with one MLP character per story. That said, I'm wondering if I should segregate each into its own story, or make it all an anthology. Feedback on this matter is appreciated.
And finally, let's talk about where Outsider's Game itself goes from here. Yes, Turning Wheel was always just one aspect of a larger crossover project.
The whole thing was born of a problem I had with most MLP crossovers: rarely is the means of getting the other party to Equestria actually explained.
The mechanics, obviously, are irrelevant. Just like how, say, Torchwood: Miracle Day could not give a meaningful answer to why death went away that didn't amount to "magic", it doesn't matter what specifically is going on to transport a character from Skullgirls to the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is magic. We're all nerds here, we can hazard guesses as to how. The important question is why.
And I find too many stories simply don't care about the why. The only why is Doylist: because the writer wanted to write a story with this character running around with ponies.
This is...unsatisfying to me. Like a fundamental part of the story was excised. And it's always because a writer can't be bothered to write one. It's a kind of laziness in writing that brings many a good story down. Some of the best crossovers had reasons in-universe - some that made more sense than others, or which gelled more with the source material's mythos. But reasons nonetheless.
So I invented a reason I could use. Outsider's Game evolved from that. I wanted a cause for why characters are running around Equestria when they shouldn't, and now there's a mechanism. A framework. A workable excuse to get characters from one world to another, and have it be meaningful.
With that out of the way, what of the future? Well...
People paying attention to the comments section would know I dropped the information that the next part of Outsider's Game would cross over with Vampire: The Masquerade.
NOT Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Just Vampire: The Masquerade. The Tabletop game. I think the PC game was a rich, wonderful (though deeply flawed) game in its own right, but I'm not limiting myself to that game. Outsider's Game in general will focus on game crossovers, but don't think that to mean just video games.
That in mind, I have a few problems. Namely, I've had a plot outline in my head for a year now, and that time has caused me to second guess (well, fortieth guess more like) my plan. The general content is fairly set - I've got themes now that are simply non-negotiable at this point - but the specifics are starting to sound...less sound.
I think I need some help on this. If anyone out there knows the old World of Darkness well - and is capable of keeping their mouths shut - I'd like to bounce my plans and concerns off them in private. I'd hate to make an inferior story because I was too married to a single interpretation, and that's got me unsure of how to proceed. As a point of fact, I've gotten to the point in my writing process where I can't help but second guess my every move several paces in advance. Am I being too lenient on my characters? Am I being too cliche? Is this the most interesting part of my character's life I'm writing about, and if not how can I fix that?
In short, I'm self-conscious about my writing ability, and could use a second opinion.
As such, leave a comment if you think you understand Vampire: The Masquerade well enough, and you have the force of will to avoid spoiling it to everyone else. I'll probably choose one person, and shoot them a PM about my plans.
...It probably won't be a Malkavian story...probably...as far as you know...
Yeah...this is the first time I even heard about Vampire: The Masquerade, so....
I know that you said the stories will focus more on games...will it be more tabletop or vidya?
It seems weird, but I play a lot of vidya games, and I do want to help.
That being said, if one of your planned crossovers happens to be Wahammer 40k, hit me up.
2713039 Mostly vidya. And no, I probably won't be touching Warhammer 40k. It gets enough attention on this site as it is.
One of my goals with Outsider's Game is to give more attention to...lesser known games. Or, in Painwheel's case, lesser loved characters. This is also why I can assure people they won't guess my other choices.