|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 176--12/8/97 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 14  ||  -------> (Cup OWis176, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OsoaWeek Book Fourteen 7 "OsoaWeek176" by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, Tarb 7381 (12/8/97), copyright 1997 LETTERS TO THE LORD Subj:  Laterst reaction to your WWWsite Date: Thu, Oct 2, 1997 9:05 PM EST 12:30 AM Friday morning  9/26/97 Hey Frank-- I've reread the first two SR CUPLINES and they are even more brilliant in this newly organized prersentation. As I have time I will read the rest again. I've been making notes in the margins where visual descriptions are given and sketching some of the characters. I'll forward them later. (((Cool.))) Catching up on OSOAWEEKS: 8/11/97 Royalty Jacket Dream: This is a good one. The feeling of helplessness when embodied as clothing is indeed scary. 8/28/97: >>On a different subject, just a little supernatural note, that earlier this week I like jettisoned a package of waste. If I was evil in past lives, I got rid of some (or most or all) of that evil. Please ignore this paragraph.<< This is a too cool paragraph. >> Got the CD "The Moog Cookbook". Very good.<< What the hell is that? I like synthesizers! (((It has Moog versions of '90s rock like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, with no MIDI at all.))) All this Macromedia Director and Shockwave stuff sounds really interesting. >> I think Mother Theresa died yesterday too, but I guess the news was overshadowed by the Diana stuff. On the subway yesterday or the day before I overheard a girl saying something like, "Well, I could get a male cat, but then I couldn't name him Diana."<< I'm sick of this Dead Di stuff. I was never interested in her life anyway, and I certainly gave not a shit that she was car-croaked. I kept waiting for one of the papparazi to confess that he had opened the door of the wrecked car, snapped pictures of the mangled princess, slammed the door and left. "She was jerking back and forth and screaming 'AHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHH!' Then she looked me right in the eye and puked everywhere. I think her spine was crushed!" The cat story related above reminds me of a recent cat-induced incident in my own life. My doorbell rang at 1:30 AM two days ago. It was my dear girlfriend TRINA, who had just taken her favorite, much-loved cat to the vet for an emergency terminal visit. Trina was very upset for a long time, as you can imagine. I related this event the next morning to my dayjob coworkers. One guy, famed for his loutish manner, said "I've been kept up all night by a pussy, too." Later. Keep up the OBE LIV EE ON NUH. Frank** Panucci * * * Subj: Your latest OSOAWEEK Date: Sat, Nov 8, 1997 11:25 AM EST 11/8/97 FRANK! Just DL'd your 80K 10/7-11/2 OSOAWEEK. re: >>I just wanna get this damn refridgerator out of my apartment and out of my life! And to think I actually hauled it up here in the first place!<< Wow. >>Is it really fun to play at killing? So many videogames these days involve graphic murder. I admit to playing some of these games, and yes, there is a novelty to it. And maybe these games allow people to release pent-up feelings. I don't know. But like just about everything, there's a point where it's just too much. And we've gotten to that point.<< No we haven't. >>You can't just go around killing everyone who pisses you off. But in a videogame, you CAN go around doing just that.<< Have you seen POSTAL? I don't like games and I don't have any on my system, but I'm seriously considering buying or getting a copy of POSTAL. It looks beautiful. (((I actually played a demo of Postal a few days ago, and I have to admit that it's an excellent game.))) >>Thursday night I wrote a little Severe Repair, for the first time in months. It involves Hadrian Fozzcolt and the Boolevathers space agency, BOCORAM. It will be part of the "Johnny Pitch" Cupline.<< I can't wait for this one. As I type this, I'm watching the SAM'n"MAX cartoon. It's not bad. It's kind of a TICK replacement. Odd how FOX replaced a series based on an old B&W comic book with another one based on an old B&W comic book. (((I've always been a huge fan of Sam 'n' Max--I have the comic anthology and the LucasArts game, and I've been anxiously anticipating the animated series for a long time. In fact, before I heard about it, I always wondered why they WEREN'T doing it. Anyway, I saw one episode about a month ago, and I was a little disappointed. Maybe it's that I was so used to the voices from the game. It seems that the animation producers aren't able to get Purcell's unique aesthetic across, for some reason.))) >>I'm lucky in that I can channel true art from myself.<< Yeah, that would be a pretty cool thing to be able to do. (((That sentence looks awfully bad out of context. I wrote it after completing a particularly insane bit a of Severe Repair, part of the Hadrian Fozzcolt thing. It was used in the context that even though I might rather not produce such violent, sexual, bizarre work, it is my TRUE art. See?))) >>In the middle of big moving weekend. Did 13 loads of laundry<< I don't even OWN 13 loads of laundry. (((Yeah, that was pretty intense. I washed everything, just dumped everything into a big pile and washed it. I ruined a bunch of sweaters and ties and stuff in the process.))) >>It tastes damn good, but a quarter way through I'm dizzy and feeling a little sick. That's the way it is with Cubans. At least, the half-dozen or so that I've smoked<< Maybe you should just smoke cigars, instead. >>The equipment for a Fonosta is a notebook and a pen. << This is obviously an attempt to create another playground for the priveleged few. It shuts out the minorities and insane homeless who can neither afford nor use a notebook and a pen. This plot sounds suspiciously republican. >>One idea I've had for a long time which I've been thinking about again is to make money by selling physical products.<< Pretty original, but crazy ideas like this can't possibly work. >>Planned out my bachelor party. We're gonna be going to Times Square, eating at the All-Star Cafe and going to XS and Laser Park and Virgin Megastore and stuff like that.<< You left out the part about watching some hard-bitten skank undress, wiggle, and hang from a pole suggestively. (((Maybe that would have been better. We wound up sitting around in this creepy basement arcade, waiting to play "Battletech" in vitual reality pods. It was quite a depressing scene.))) >>There are some unanswered questions about Blooming.<< Damn straight. >>Originally, I had decided that a Deal would have to be in front of a player on a I couldn't get the page to load beyond this point. It just stopped there. Re-loading didn't help. Oh well. (((I checked the page and it looks okay to me. Beyond the point you described, there are only 47 lines, but you may want to check it out anyway.))) The eternal BRAXTON project continues. Family health matters have slowed things a bit. Mom and Dad have been alternately in dire health this whole year. Good luck with the impending nuktialz, and keep OBIVIANA-ing. (((Thanks!))) Frank** P. 11/8/97 11:16 AM *OW* LORD OF OBLIVIANA Wed 11/5/97 * 11:01 PM Well, it seems that one of my hard drives died. Lucky I backed it up onto a Zip last week, eh? I took my ancient 20MB hard drive offline last week also--even through it was still working fine after eight long years of use! The one that died was only a few years old, but also only a few hundred megabytes. Oh well. Stratocaster. Leaning against the wall. Still it's cool to have. Got the December 1969 issue of Playboy today. I got it for this guy James at work, but it turned out it was the wrong issue, and even though he offered to pay for it anyway, I opted to keep it. I believe the centerfold he was after is in the November 1969 issue. Maybe I'll get it for him tomorrow. On the Obliviana front, my major idea of the day is to have a permanent factor in Fonosta/Jot. Specifically, some sort of Jot or value which once obtained is permanent, and cannot be altered or lost or traded or anything. Just now, a spider crawled out of my plastic cup of change. I lifted up the cup and the spider leapt to the carpet. I dumped the change out and put the cup over the spider. Then I gently slipped a CompUSA charge card bill under the cup. Then I turned the cup over and saw that the spider was in there. Then I went down the stairs, unlocked the door, went outside, and let the spider go. Then I put the change back in the cup. I figure that's gotta be like amazing good luck, y'know, coins and spiders and sparing its life and all that. Good luck... I could use some luck in my Obliviana development. Even after my great breakthough this past Sunday, I'm still pretty muddled. So, the idea of permanent stuff. One idea here is that the record of what you have done is permanent. But I want something that is more than a record. Perhaps it can be a class of Jot. All I need to do to have a permanent is to have a Jot which is never part of the price of a Deal. I guess the issue of permanent Jots relates to the issue of the ultimate goal. One thing I have been thinking about recently is the idea of the "scalable game". This would be a way to play Obliviana where there is a limited subgame happening, which would have a beginning, middle, and end, and which would fit into the context of your overall Fonosta. Thu 11/6/97 * 1:11 AM Nine days till my wedding. Time is flying. So the ideas of "permanents" and "subgames" are very important. Gotta work of them. 11:06 PM Some vortex stuff today. Visions of vast power. In the past I would have lusted after such power. Now I am very wary of it. Not that being afraid of power is a good thing--I'm not really afraid of it. I just know the effects that power has, and the advantages that powerlessness has in some cases. I felt that I had contact with the past. A whole scenario. Major supernatural stuff. This is weird, but my contact with the vortex has always been through my ring fingers, pressed to my palm. This past week I've had a particularly nasty ingrown nail on my right ring finger. That is what finally propmted me to "look" back in the direction of the vortex. I saw into the vortex in the past, maybe in the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century. I am rational, and I know that this supernatural stuff sound awfully weird, like I'm nuts or something. I just mention it because I have referred to it in the past, and I think it is interesting that now, after what must have been over a year from the time I resolved this whole issue, the vortex is back. It's back only in one sense, since the vortex ceased to exist over a year ago. All this is according to my supernatural experience, which is of course not entirely reliable. Think of the vortex as a concentration of energy. Once the energy is no longer concentrated, the vortex ceases to be. But the energy still exists. Who knows. Maybe it's just wedding stress. I don't know. My supernatural experiences have been strong enough for me to know that there is definitely SOMETHING going on, but my interpretation of the information I have could certainly be wrong. When I was an adolescent, I was obsessed with gaining vast supernatural power. Specifically, I wanted the ability to travel to other worlds at will, which I originally called "Dimtrav" (dimensional travel), and later just called "Reality Travel". As I grew older, I focused more on time travel, which is a subset of Reality Travel. Thinking about time travel has always been a big thing for me. Humanity is also a big topic of mine. It took me awhile to realize that these two things are not at all compatible. I believe that I may have been a time traveller in a past life. I may also have lost my humanity and became a monster. And I don't think time travel is anywhere near as fun for a monster as it is for a human. It is very easy to imagine a very modest level of time travel being good for your humanity. But with time travel comes amazing power. Even a little bit of time travel could get you almost limitless wealth, for example. Being human means always wanting and fantasizing. I believe that wanting something and fantasizing about it is an experience that has a lot of value. Once you actually GET the object of your desire, the experience is kind of discharged. This can be demonstrated through consumerism. I think just about everybody finds things for sale which they cannot buy right away. The desire for such an object places that object in a very mystical position.But once you get it, it goes on a shelf or in a drawer and it's not all that mystical anymore. Getting everything you desire right away, then, seems to be a good way to discharge all those "mystic" feelings. You're left either feeling dead, or even worse, pining after greater and bigger things. And inevitably, getting these enormous things is eventually gonna start hurting other people. 11:47 PM One idea I had for Obliviana today is to "license" Obliviana to different content providers. I could be the first "licensee". I don't know how much merit this idea has. Fri 11/7/97 * 12:43 AM The "license" idea solves two problems: [1] It separates my personal creative works from the core of Obliviana. [2] It allows me to bring other people into Obliviana while still keeping them away from Core Obliviana. I do not want to sell any part of Core Obliviana. I will be in no position to pay people for quite some time. In lieu of equity in Obliviana, a license would provide incentive without giving up any part of Core Obliviana. So maybe this idea is not all that bad at all. And it fits into the overall theme of building Obliviana using layers, as in the Jot System. That is, low-level systems are separate from the high-level systems that have the low-level systems as their foundation. This leaves the idea of "Missions" as the only unanswered question in this round of Obliviana development. With "Missions", I am referring to subgames within the neverending overall game of Obliviana. Since Obliviana is focused on being a solitary experience, the subgames have to also be of a solitary nature, as opposed to a competitive nature. The idea of Missions is that a prize is established, along with a set of requirements and a time limit. This can be accomplished with my current system. That is, Deals all have time limits, so certain "prizes" can be made to be only available during a limited time. But I am thinking of adding something here--that Missions must be gotten and put into a Fonosta--and from THAT time, there will be a limited amount of time in which to accomplish the goal. Fri 11/7/97 * 11:38 PM Just wrote more Severe Repair. Scene in the subway car with Hadrian and Bline. Me, science fiction writer, and my life having those sci-fi elements. The supernatural. Geez, I seem like a good candidate to become a cult leader. But I am absolutely not going to go in that direction. Is Obliviana more than a game? I think that in the 209 aspect, it is more than a game. And I admit that the 209 side is very vulnerable to BECOMING cultlike. That is, if I begin to EXPLAIN why 209 works, it will become a cult. As a cult leader, I could probably make a lot of money. But I don't want that. It would be wrong for me to offer explanations which I am unsure of. But this is dangerous territory. Introducing a cool new supernatural thing is gonna make Obliviana somewhat cultlike. And the word "occult" in Obliviana Super Occult Amusement doesn't help in moving AWAY from being a cult. On the one side there's the adult hypersensitivity to Marilyn Manson and stuff like that, and on the other side is the genuine hunger for cults in today's youth. I think a lot of this has to do with cultural factors. Obliviana should not be associated with anything "goth". Obliviana overall is about building your Fonosta. The story of your 209-enhanced life. Oh, I decided to change "Currency Jots" into "Time Jots". So... Time Jots, Page Jots, Base Jots, Happen Jots, Bloom Jots. But I still have this Mission thing to develop. But a Mission is just going to be a kind of Deal, right? The Permanent idea... could be something like "Bricks"... to build the permanent structure of your Fonosta... Octagons... maybe eight Bloom Jots of the same kind? Then made into an Octagon? Hmm... Sun 11/9/97 * 4:53 PM Had my bachelor pary last night. Very interesting, but in a depressing kind of way. Like my last trip to Disney World. Anyway. I want to get Obliviana to a plateau before my wedding and honeymoon. One week from today I'll be leaving for the airport to go to California. Never been there. I have been working furiously on Obliviana, so many new ideas and directions, and to me now, the whole thing is a blur. I want to get a handle on things here. Okay. Obliviana is a game. It is an ongoing game, without end. But it is separated by time. Where most games are defined by certain endgame criteria, Obliviana is defined by real time. Therefore, even though the game is neverending, each day, week, Book (13 weeks), and year are segments in which there are specific challenges. Obliviana is primarily solitaire, and secondarily competitive. Classic video games are the major paradigm of Obliviana. With classic video games, solo play is the main form. But competing for high scores and talking about the games is a secondary but very important part of the pastime. At a very rudimentary level, Obliviana involves each player working on his or her Fonosta, which is a notebook. The game is played with little graphical symbols called Jots. New idea: Octagons, which are sets of eight of the same Bloom Jot, may only be used to "build" when the Fonosta they're in a "closed" and a new one begun. This idea of "closing" a Fonosta is new. I think that this kind of "clean slate" is very important in the game. The main question with "closing" a Fonosta is how much stuff can be transferred to the new Fonosta. As I just stated, Octagons will absolutly be transferred, transformed into "building blocks". But what of all the other Jots? Being that a Fonosta represents a little world, it makes sense that that little world should remain, albeit in a "set in stone" manner. That is, an active Fonosta is in a constant state of flux. Once a Fonosta is closed, the world it represents is "fixed". Though the Pages in closed Fonosta cannot be further altered, they should still be a part of the game in some way. 5:21 PM My idea of "licensing" Obliviana to other people or companies is intruiging. One central idea here is that drinking in the works of the licensee is the Happen for making Blooms in that part of Obliviana. In other words, each licensee would "host" a sets of Happens and other Jots, focused on the creative works of the person or company. This idea solves a lot of problems I have had in involving my creative works into the game. With the licencing idea, not only do my own works fit in, but also, the works I do with other people can also fit in, as a different licensee. As well, there can be licensees in which I am not involved in the creative works. And even... the various elements in Core Obliviana can be split up along the same lines. Thus, all the "licensees" and areas within Obliviana are at the same level. Each of these "licensees", which I will call "Happenforges" for now, will have its own set of Deals. 11:41 PM Deal/Jot Types, and how they are obtained: [1] Base... Time, maybe others [2] Time... received as time passes [3] Happen... by doing a particular action [4] Bloom... Base and Happen and maybe Time [5] Page... Bloom and Time? Here are some excerpts from a file I wrote on 12/17/95: *********** The game--NOT a 3-D world, but a simple, 2-D world... Games--imagine Pac-Man with a board so huge it might take months to clear--a collecting game where a little bit of effort every day will pay off in the long run. Digital artifact ownership--pay real money for Digital Artifacts... The World of Obliviana--projected to stimulate the imagination, not deaden it... Your Fonosta--your "GUY" in video game terms...!!! Many things going on... gambling... exploring... uncovering... building... Listen--a 2-D classic video game world--where huge numbers of users interact--this will probably be Obliviana's sole thing--ie--no one else will do it--they'll all go 3-D... Collecting Pelters... bowling-like game... religion... mating and generations... fruits... weapons... Idea of huge levels--it might take hundreds of people weeks or months to clear, and then the next one is revealed... ******************* Okay. First of all, the idea of collective effort is good, but how can it be implemented? It would have to involve players registering their moves with Obliviana. But could it be done on a solo level? For example, take on a "Pac-Man" type board, and seek to clear it? This would fit into the Mission idea I had a few days ago. Gambling is another idea here. It would involve choosing one Jot over another, where it is not known what new Deals will be presented. That is, depending on the nature of new Deals that are introduced, certain Jots will be more valuable than others. Aspects of the game so far: [1] Every week, players gain a set number of Time Jots. [2] Deals are presented online and elsewhere. Each Deal has a time range. The Deal is valid on those days only. All valid Deals are presented on the Obliviana website. There is no limit to the number of Deals that can be taken, though most Deals will have Time Jot requirements, which will naturally limit Dealmaking. [3] There are five kinds of Jots, which are obtained through five kinds of Deals. Each Deal has a "Price" and a "Product". The Price consists of Jots which must be "scribbled out" or events, called "Happens". Time Jots are obtained every week on a particular day. Additional factors, such as a player's birthday or amoutn of time playing Obliviana, may affect the number of Time Jots received. Happen Jots are obtained by performing an action that is described in the Price. [4] Base Jots are obtained exclusively "within" the game, whereas Happen Jots are obtained exlusively "outside" the game. These two types of Jots combine to form Bloom Jots, which are the major objects in the game. [5] The game is run in weekly cycles. In general, Deals will last in minimum increments of one week. Each week, any number of new Deals may potentially become available. The design and duration of the Deals is the element of the game that defines the nature of the game. Tue 11/11/97 * 11:30 PM I think I may have solved one major problem in my Obliviana design--the purpose of all the effort. The answer is not entirely clear-cut, but I think it will work. I have brought back Octagon as one of the goals of the game. I needed a game object that would be very difficult and time-consuming to obtain. At first, I was thinking along of lines of Fonosta Device, and gaining a glyph. But I realized that Device is a part of Octagon. Right now I have an idea, and that is that Octagon can have aspects and functions which are totally beyond Jot. Now, an idea I've been playing with is to number Deals, and to keep a record of Deals done in sequence by number. This would make it very hard to cheat, since analysis of the Deal sequence could easily identify phimmed Jots. Backtracking would still be possible, but even that would be made harder. Keeping a log is also good to verify for yourself that a certain Jot was obtained "legally". Now, an Octagon will have eight aspects, and one of them should definitely be architectural, since that is part of my original Octagon vision. Now, what system is Octagon a part of if not Jot? Well, it is part of Fonosta. In both the Device and Architectural aspects, Octagon is about building things to present to the world--the way your Fonosta looks to others. Other aspects of Octagon could refer to subgames and stuff. Octagons would take a long time to acquire--at least the better part of 13 weeks. Each "Happenforge" would releaase its own Octagons, and new Octagons would be like new car models--highly anticipated and appreciated. Fri 11/14/97 * 12:15 AM I'm getting married tomorrow. Wow. It's here. The work I did on Obliviana a few days ago, where I developed the idea of Octagons as the main goal, did serve to put my mind at ease somewhat as to the state of Obliviana going into my wedding and honeymoon. Still, I do not have a clear vision of exactly what Obliviana is going to be like. Octagon has to be something of a higher system than Jot. That is, the Octagons that a player has will allow him or her to do things--things that are not a part of the Jot System. This is sounding awfully complicated, but I don't think it has to be. Octagon has eight aspects. These aspects should all relate to activities in LWOR. This is, in fact, what I had originally intended for Octagon. So let me recap what the Obliviana System entails: [1] Little World of Racetracks (LWOR) is an imaginary world. [2] Fonosta is a personal record. [3] Jot is a system which encodes objects as glyphs. [4] Octagon is a system which governs activity in LWOR. [5] Pavilion is a system by which different creators present entertainment content as a part of the overall Obliviana system. 9:30 AM 10:36 AM I was gonna start writing an hour ago, but instead I started doing financial work for my wedding and honeymoon. Anyway, I want to get a little more work done on Obliviana before my rehearsal which begins in under eight hours. That'll be the official beginning to the whole wedding and honymoon experience. That list of five things I have above is still awfully confusing. I know that Obliviana is a game, but I need to be able to describe--to other people as well as to myself--in much simpler terms. I think that the "layered" idea is a good way to define Obliviana. That is, a central idea, with clearly understandable ways to extend it. The idea that I am currently calling "Pavilion" is the idea of the game being partitioned into different sections, each of which is focused on a Revolver of content and that Revolver's creator. In this idea, I am allowing for the possibility of people "licensing" Obliviana, under a set of defined rules. Bascially, each Pavilion must focus on a Revolver of content, and this Revolver should have substantial freely available Internet content. The benefit that a "Pavilion Lord" would get is the visibility and promotion of being a part of Obliviana. The Revolvers will be chosen by me, and will have to fit into the overall scheme of Obliviana. So--you play Obliviana in various Pavilions. Pavilions are located on LWOR, and only one Pavilion can be built per LWOR mile, making for a maximum of 256 Pavilions. Jot is a system which does not impact on LWOR. By this, I mean that Jots do not represent objects in LWOR. Jots can, however, be transformed into Octagons, which do encode LWOR objects. I have always maintained that in a Little World of Racetracks, racing will be one of the activities. Each Fonosta has a Xappen, which is like a classic videogame "guy". In the past, I have struggled with my desire to have a non-computer system involved with LWOR activity. Now, this is no longer a problem. Jot is the non-comupter system. Octagon is the computer-based system. So whereas Jot is totally analog, or at least potentially analog, Octagon will be a networked computer game. 12:14 PM Octagon, in general, has the potential to represent other things besides LWOR objects. That is, the Obliviana system viewed as whole is very flexible. Just as different Pavilions represent different Revolver, LWOR represents one of numerous possible focuses for Octagon. Wed 11/26/97 * 6:47 PM I'm back from my honeymoon! It was an awesome trip to California, and I'll talk about it later. For now, I want to get back into Obliviana development. On the trip, I didn't work on Obliviana very much till the last few days in West Hollywood. On my sixth floor corner balcony overlooking Sunset Boulevard, I made several breakthroughs in Obliviana. First of all, I decided that Octagons are obtained not by trading Jots, but rather, by building a certain set of Jots on a Page in your Fonosta. Each Page has the capacity to produce one Octagon. This is a big difference because it further separates Jot from Octagon. As well, it puts a lot more structure into Fonosta Pages. Another breakthrough I had was to reduce the number og Jot types. I decided that Base Jots were not necessary. Happen Jots require that you perform a certain action in order to acquire them. These actions can be very simple or very complex. So, the more common Jots, which were the Base Jots, will have simpler Happens. This leaves four Jot types, and I want to reduce this further. Time Jots can be considered Happen Jots--where the action is waiting one week. I don't know if this reduction is necessary, but as long as it simplifies the system, it's a good thing. Page Jots and Bloom Jots are then all that's left. Bloom Jots are a distinct type of Jot, since they are two Jots nerged together. Page Jots could be considered regular Bloom Jots, only moved into the Page Jot area via the rules of movement in the Fonosta/Jot System. So, there are really only two types of Jots--Happen and Bloom. The "Happen" designation is no longer needed; these can be called simply "Jots". Bloom Jots can still be called this, though I may come up with a different name. 7:44 PM So, building a set of Jots on each Page of your Fonosta is the central activity in Fonosta. Each Page represents a place in a little imaginary world. Jots represent objects in this world, so the goal for each Page is a set of Jots, though each Page could have a number of different Octagon goals. The nature of Octagon is not very important in terms of Fonosta/Jot. Octagons are the goal, and their nature will be a motivating factor, but in terms of the Fonosta/Jot system, the nature of Octagon is not very important. 11:30 PM So where am I at with Obliviana? One thing is for sure--I have Obliviana transformed Obliviana over and over again. Right now, Obliviana has again been born anew. But this time, I think it might be the final transformation before it becomes a reality. Obliviana right now is still pretty complicated. The thought of just going with Severe Repair, for example, and putting everything else aside is pretty compelling. But I have come too far with the overall idea to allow myself to toss it aside. So Obliviana is about Fonosta, Jot, Little World of Racetracks, Octagon, Pavilion, Zope, Severe Repair, Superior, Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall, etc. It's about a lot of stuff. 11:40 So, getting a Jot involves doing a Happen. How does this relate to 209? Good question. Another question that I asked myself in West Hollywood was what the presentation and attitude of Obliviana would be. Its culture. Obliviana is a thing that very definitely needs a strong cultural identity. Thus far, its culture is kind of vague. First of all, Obliviana will most definitely not be a cult. I have decided that I will not offer explanations about supernatural stuff in Obliviana. I will simply make observations, while leaving the cause unknown. Right here, I am writing in OsoaWeek, which is writing that will be a permanent part of Obliviana, always accessible. I can honestly say that I do not know why 209 works. I have ideas, which I have written in past issues of OsoaWeek. But I do not know. If I make an effort to state what I believe to be the cause behind 209, I am risking Obliviana becoming a cult. People become very charged and loyal to ideas about the unknown. When someone present an explanation about the supernatural, there is always the chance that other people will begin to believe. The originator of the idea then will most likely become aware that people believe his or her ideas, and this will affect the way this person thinks about the idea. This is how cults develop. Or at least, it's my idea of how cults develop. Huh. I'm doing it even now--presenting an explanation for something unknown. I am very prone to presenting my own explanations of the unknown, and I have a desire to have other people believe me. And I have some very good ideas. Maybe in some alternate branching of reality, I did become a cult leader by accident. But for whatever reason, me in this reality has not become a cult leader. I am in a good position right now. I have an almost totally blank slate to work with. I am going to present to people a game called Obliviana. It is a game that involves 209, a system in which I have observed supernatural effects that are to me undeniable. I have ideas as to why 209 works, but I do not know for sure. What I do know is that 209 makes adventures happen. Used in the proper way, 209 is very entertaining and very fulfilling. Wild Pioneer on the 209 Frontier. Thu 11/27/97 * 12:11 AM Just went onto my site over the Internet. It really doesn't have much cultural identity. Certainly, the graphics on the website will be the first step in establishing Obliviana's cultural identity. But what is that identity to be? Wild Pioneer is the big idea here. If I can present to people a way to be a true pioneer wherever they are, then that is the beginning of a cultural identity. 1:36 AM At this point in time, where we have such a wide range of cultures and themes that most people are commonly familiar with, any new sort of culture or cultural traits will be measured against the existing range of cultures. Even so, it is apparent that totally new cultures can rise out of the mire of existing cultures into their own identity. Obliviana is a game. And I want to create a culture for it. But I can't really create a culture for it--I can only create cultural seeds. Graphics, symbols, attitude--all these things serve to define what something is all about. Obliviana has remained undefined for a long time. There are obvious disadvantages to being undefined. But there is one big advantage--being undefined, the eventual definition is very, very flexible. Obliviana is a game, and as such it is not going to be the overriding cultural thing in someone's life. But it still needs to have a very clear definition. Fri 11/28/97 * 12:35 AM Thanksgiving is just over. Obliviana can be a very specific thing. Though Obliviana is designed as a very flexible basic system, which could potentially accomodate a huge number of variations, I will be focusing on just a single variation for the Obliviana system. In other words, in all aspects of Obliviana, simplicity and limitation are the rules of thumb. Regarding Happens, which are also known as Friction Enhancers, the set of these is virtually limitless. But I think I should focus on a subset of the entire set, in order to help establish Obliviana's identity. One big cultural thing in Obliviana is what I have in the past referred to as "Contemporary Terrain". This idea involves reinterpreting the mundane world around us, realizing that streets and stores and malls and parks and fast food restauarants are our natural surroundings. But will this embracing of the mundane be good as a cultural basis? Well, it is NOT an embracing of the mundane. It is looking at the mundane in a new way, and seeing that it is not mundane at all. Here's a thought. Take a Dunkin Donuts. You can stand to the north, south, east, or west of it, and you have four different views. You can be in it at day or at night. One place becomes many places. The SITUATION in which you experience something creates a new PLACE. This is a very important idea. 1:01 AM Okay. So, with this in mind, it is clear that even our local areas are not at all small--but rather, incredibly huge. Different objects and places and people in different configurations create new worlds. 209 focuses and enhances this phenomenon. 8:59 PM Jots and Friction Enhancers--the same thing? 209 and Jot--what's the relationship? People, places, and things, each is different depending on the SITUATION. Even with a very limited set of places and things, you can have a lot of situations. Obliviana is a game which has at its core the idea that there's a lot more to the world around us than what we normally see. 209 is all about Stormjaunting. In a Stormjaunt, numerous Jots can be gotten, because numerous Happens can be done. Stormjaunting vs. Casual Jotting. Obliviana is a very specific thing. Explanation should be at a minimum. Drinking Obliviana content IS Jottable. This is the way it is. Now, I am working on defining ALL of Obliviana. All that Obliviana has been will be in the past. The new Obliviana is the true Obliviana. I have to say this because of the way that I understand Obliviana, as being so huge and incomprehensible. Listening to Donald Fagen's album "Kamakiriad". Definitely one of my all-time favorite albums. Obliviana is a game of solitaire at its core. You have a Fonosta, and the game is to keep on building and improving your Fonosta. Your Fonosta is a notebook which is symbolized by a graphical sign called Your Fonosta Device. Each Page of your Fonosta has the potential to Bloom. When it does, it produces an Octagon. One of the eight aspects of Octagon is a graphical element for Your Fonosta Device. Jots are little glyphs which are drawn on the Pages. You get a Jot by doing a Deal in a Pavilion. A Deal defines what you must do to get the Jot. Each Pavilion is centered on a Revolver, which is a world of intellectual property. "Star Wars" is an example of a Revolver, as is "The Simpsons", "Spice Girls", "San Francisco", etc. But these are not Obliviana Revolvers. Some Deals require that you drink some content from a Revolver. Others require that you perform some other action, which can be as simple as thinking about something to as complex as making a Mallball, which requires going to diffierent malls and creating a ball of stringlike products. At any given time, there is a set of official Obliviana Revolvers. Each Revolver has specific content which is created by one or more individuals, who are at the head of the Revolver. Obliviana is therefore a source of original entertainment content. I, Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana will be at the head of the core Revolvers, such as Zope and Severe Repair. Some Revolvers may be headed by myself and one or more other people--such as "Anything But Monday", with Mike Massotto, which is a possible Revolver. Yet other Revolvers may be headed by persons other than me, and at this point, Obliviana would be licensed to such persons. In fact, even the Revolvers I am involved in will involve licensing. In this way, Obliviana will not own Revolvers; it will be licensed to Revolver owners. Obliviana has specific criteria for its official Revolvers. That is, it is not a free-for-all, where just any Revolver is acceptible. Rather, Obliviana has specific guidelines in terms of both content AND form. The first of these guidelines is that a substantive portion of each Revolver be available for free drinking on the Internet. In terms of content, I myself have the final say as to what Revolvers may become official Obliviana Revolvers. But in a very general way, content that is sci-fi/fantasy, humorous, well-crafted, weird, etc. is what I am looking for. FORM is a very important and difficult issue in Obliviana. Some potential forms of content are: [1] Digital text [plain-vanilla ASCII preferred] [2] Digital images [grayscale preferred over color] [3] Digital audio/video [audio preferred over video] [4] Analog audio/video [audio preferred over video] [5] Digital 2-D interactive [the simpler, the better] [6] Digital 3-D interactive [very much discouraged] [7] Print [secondary to digital] [8] Physical Objects [definitely a part of Obliviana] This is just a general outline of the content requirements and preferences in Obliviana. The entire first phase of the new Obliviana will involve only my own personal Revolvers. Other people will be involved in the second phase. Sat 11/29/97 * 1:46 AM From 8/24/97, about three months ago: *********** [1] Supernatural--Organized--Solo Revolver: Severe Repair Stormjaunt: Pioneer (explore the unknown, focus on the 209 Storms, keep records) [2] Supernatural--Wild--Solo Revolver: Superior Stormjaunt: Blivver/Atmoshperist (poetic, seek coincidences, feeling of places, Addressing, etc.) [3] Supernatural--Organized--Group Revolver: Super Object Stormjaunt: Artificer (make things) [4] Supernatural--Wild--Group Revolver: Confounder Stormjaunt: Gamer (play games) [5] Conventional--Wild--Solo Revolver: Zope Stormjaunt: Wandering Adventurer [6] Conventional--Organized--Solo Revolver: Halfevil Graphics Stormjaunt: Recorder/Namer (Keep records, "bless") [7] Conventional--Wild--Group Revolver: Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall Stormjaunt: Mixer (combine and move stuff, seek out stuff with themes) [8] Conventional--Organized--Group Revolver: Primitive Stormjaunt: Communicator (messages, arrangement of objects, secrets, etc.) ******************* This is the "Set of Eight" that I spent so much time working on. It's weird that I really didn't remember it till I went back and look for something like it. I really should spend more time reading over my writings from the past. Anyway, where does this "Set of Eight" fit into my current scheme? Well, first of all it makes Obliviana much more me-centric. All of the Core of Obliviana is totally Frank Edward Nora. But then, this has to be the case. It has to be me alone who builds the first phase of Obliviana. Another thing this Set points out is the idea of 8 aspects of Stormjaunting. In this Set, I see a sketch of a Jaunter, going out and doing things, going on Jaunts, feeling alive, being a part of it all, etc. I do, though, want to leave room for people who don't want to get so heavily involved. But at this point, I can say that Jots are going to be a big part of Stormjaunting. This is a very new direction. 3:28 PM The thought just struck me to base the culture of Obliviana on a set of ficticious video games. I have always been fascinated with a subculture of the 1980s which contained aspects of Dungeons & Dragons, computer hacking, Star Trek, Lewis Carrol, etc. I do want a very clear, straightforward cultural image for Obliviana. The straightforwardness that is often considered "corny" has all but disappeared in the very jaded youth culture of today. But this "corny" aspect has been coming back, with Beck's seventies sensibilities and very recently in the film "Starship Troopers". The key to this straightforward style is presenting characters and ideas in a direct, unapologetic way. I have been struggling with creating new themes for my Racetracks, but maybe it would be better to create fake videogames which exemplify the various cultural aspects I wish to associate with Obliviana. "Hyper Rover" is a title that comes to mind. "Piperspace" is an interesting idea also, combining mythical Bacchus-type hedonism with space exploration. One theme that strikes me is using various forms of pioneering as themes to accent the overall theme of Obliviana, which is becoming a Wild Pioneer on the Obliviana Frontier. Facade and bombast are not inherently bad things, and when the audience is "in on the joke" it can work very well. In Obliviana, the cultural aspects will be presented in the graphics, writing, and in the themes of the eight Racetracks. As I commented recently, it is difficult for me to conceive of Obliviana in a coherent manner, since it has been so many different things over the past decade or so. So I do have to reconceive Obliviana, starting from scratch. Okay. Obliviana is nothing. Now what? Obliviana is a game. It is symbolized by the "Wings" logo. It is also symbolized by the "Little World of Racetracks" (LWOR), which encodes 209 (LWOR is bounded by a rectangle 11 units wide and 19 units high--11x19=209). "Obliviana Super Occult Amusement" is the company that runs Obliviana, headed by Frank Edward Nora, the Lord of Obliviana. Obliviana is divided into eight sections, represented by the eight Major Racetracks. This division is similar to the way a deck of playing cards is divided into four suits--it is a very primal and very fundamental and unchanging aspect of the system. There are three Minor Racetracks, including number 9 and 10, which are the Mystery Racetracks, and number 11, which is the Central Racetrack. There are 256 Racetrack segments, which is the total number of segments from all 11 Racetracks. There are eight "blank" squares on LWOR through which no Racetrack segments run. Each Racetrack has a Staring Line which is on one segment. Segments are numbered sequentially, starting on the Starting Line of Racetrack 1 and finishing on the last segment before returning to the Starting Line segment of Racetrack 11. LWOR is the "game board" of Obliviana. Every aspect of play in Obliviana is connected to LWOR. 4:38 PM I'm rereading OsoaWeek001, from July 28, 1994. It was supposed to signal the launch of Obliviana, and my writing was quite positive and energetic. Unfortunately, it's almost three-and-a-half years later, and Obliviana still hasn't launched. I'm reading the first issue of OsoaWeek to try and get some perspective on this whole thing, and also to compare where I am now to where I was then. It's amazing that with all the changes I done in Obliviana, how similar the basic premise is. I do feel bad about those few individuals who did respond to the call of Obliviana. I know I've let them down. But the number of such people is very small, and hopefully these individuals will return to Obliviana when it really does launch. 5:49 PM I view OsoaWeek001 with a little bit of disgust. It has been so long, and still Obliviana is in near-total obscurity. But what if Obliviana had taken off in its July 1994 form? I don't think it would have ben too bad designwise, even though the design I have now is immensely superior. Rahter, I think the problem would have been with ME. In the past three-and-a-half years, I have grown and matured a great deal. I have learned humility through failure. And I have also learned that fame and fortune do not equal happiness. Back in 1994, I very definitely wanted to be rich and famous and powerful. Now, I definitely don't want to be famous, and while I want to have the money to provide a decent like for me and my family, I am no longer obsessed with becoming a multi-billionaire. So maybe in 1994 Obliviana was ready to go, but I wasn't. Now I'm married and I've grown up a whole lot. And I do feel ready to launch Obliviana. My friend Frank Panucci suggested several years ago that perhaps it would be better for me to focus exclusively on Severe Repair, as opposed to spreading myself out so thin on the baffling, vaporware game of Obliviana (I'm paraphrasing here). Being grown-up as I am, this idea appeals to me and makes an awful lot of sense. Interesting. Now that I am mature, I run the risk of abandoning my dream. But it is only a risk--and not a very dangerous one--because I have invested at this point so much time and energy that there's no way I'm gonna abandon my core endeavor of Obliviana. I want to switch gears here and talk about the game aspect of Obliviana. Firstly, I want to reassert the solitaire and personal aspect of Obliviana. You can play Obliviana by yourself and without communicating back to Obliviana. Even back in OsoaWeek001, I set forth as a cardinal rule that you need not "join" Obliviana in order to play. If there is to be a contiguous LWOR with Xappens and racing and all that, then perhaps some sort of joining will be required. But as far as the basic game goes, you will not need to send any messages or information to Obliviana at all. This is an idealistic decision. Certainly, at some level it must be considered stupid from a business point of view to allow people to have something totally for free without giving anything back. This is a very complex question however--it is not clear whether or not it will help or hurt Obliviana in the long run. But I feel it will help it. With Octagon, interaction with Obliviana and other players can be nothing at all, or very intense. Since Device is one of the eight aspects of Octagon, a solo player's sole motivation vis-a-vis Octagon could be Device-building for personal satisfaction. So far, the Obliviana basics that I have set forth are: [1] Obliviana (game) [2] Wings Logo (symbol) [3] Little World of Racetracks (LWOR) (board) [4] Obliviana Super Occult Amusement (OSOA) (company) [5] Lord of Obliviana (Frank Edward Nora) [6] Racetracks (basic divisions) 6:23 PM [7] Fonosta (record of player) Fonosta is the record of a player's experience in Obliviana. A Fonosta exists in LWOR as a sword or wand thrust into the ground in a particular segment of LWOR. 8:00 PM Let me rethink what I just wrote about Fonosta. I have not previously really thought specifically about how a basic Fonosta exists in LWOR. LWOR is a very versatile gameboard. The fully-realized, videogame-inspired world of Xappens is at the Octagon level. But what is at the Jot level? Fonosta has to be related to LWOR, but I really haven't worked on developing this aspect. So I better start doing it right now. I guess it would be good to consider Fonosta as your own "personal" LWOR. Link Pages and Segments? Maybe... I want to do this without sacrificing the simplicity of Fonosta/Jot. But it makes total sense, especially since LWOR is such a bedrock foundation of Obliviana, that Fonosta is based in LWOR. Fonosta as it stand right now is represented by a notebook, separated into Pages, each of which is a separate Place. This sounds awfully-well suited to being linked to LWOR--each Racetrack Segment is a separate place where you can put things. This idea brings up the idea that each player has his or her own LWOR, in addition to the shared LWOR at the Octagon/Xappen level. I don't have anything against this idea. I want LWOR to be a very versatile foundation for Obliviana. So--Fonosta is your own PERSONAL LWOR! Wow. More on LWOR: LWOR is also the Forge of Wander (FOW). Or is it? FOW is the grid which contains Storms and Storm Pelters and Pilferids (Flips and Dires). So, should FOW be separate from LWOR? No. I feel that LWOR/FOW should be a single thing standing as the basis of Obliviana. Is there a conflict between the identities of LWOR and FOW? Yes, I feel there is a conflict, because I need one single solid identity for the foundation. I am now thinking of combining LWOR and FOW into one graphical image, which would contain all the numbered squares (Storms), all the Racetracks, all the Pilferids, etc. But really, isn't LWOR built "on top of" FOW? 8:51 PM This is a very difficult question. I can: [1] Throw out either the "LWOR" or "FOW" name and combine the two sets of data into one, or... [2] Keep LWOR and FOW separate, and structure them as one being "on top of" the other. So, what's it gonna be? Simpler is definitely preferable. The less terms and ideas in the basic system the better. There is the complication of the Storm numbering vs. the segment numbering. This is really the big difference between LWOR and FOW. 9:12 PM The two numbering systems exist for two different purposes. They are separate, and they will continue to be separate numbering systems, whether LWOR and FOW remain separate or are combined. Because of this, there will quite clearly be two separate systems no matter what. So I think that it stands to reason that LWOR and FOW should remain separate. So... [1] Obliviana (game) [2] Wings Logo (symbol) [3] Little World of Racetracks (LWOR) (board) [4] Obliviana Super Occult Amusement (OSOA) (company) [5] Lord of Obliviana (Frank Edward Nora) [6] Racetracks (basic divisions) [7] Fonosta (record of player) [8] Forge of Wander (FOW) (foundation) The relationships between the two numbering systems of LWOR and FOW are as yet unexplored by me. The combination of these systems should produce an "organic" or "natural" structure in the midst of these highly artificial systems. So a player gets his or her own FOW and LWOR, which becomes his or her Fonosta. [9] Jots (information glyphs) [10] Segments (parts of Racetracks where Jots are stored) Now, where does Stormjaunting come in here? It would make sense to record the Storms you go on in your personal FOW which is part of your Fonosta, right? 11:47 PM [11] Octagon (rewards with 8 aspects) [12] Xappen (player's "avatar", like a videogame "guy") [13] Fonosta Device (a graphical symbol, each Octagon has one glyph in it) Sun 11/30/97 * 4:36 PM Well, I do seem to have a new beginning going on here. Let me just redo the list here: [1] Obliviana (game) [2] Wings Logo (symbol) [3] Little World of Racetracks (LWOR) (board) [4] Obliviana Super Occult Amusement (OSOA) (company) [5] Lord of Obliviana (Frank Edward Nora) [6] Racetracks (basic divisions) [7] Fonosta (record of player) [8] Forge of Wander (FOW) (foundation) [9] Jots (information glyphs) [10] Segments (parts of Racetracks where Jots are stored) [11] Octagon (rewards with 8 aspects) [12] Xappen (player's "avatar", like a videogame "guy") [13] Fonosta Device (a graphical symbol, each Octagon has one glyph in it) One major question I have to ask myself is: Will there be a full-blown shared online world of LWOR, with competetive racing and all that? The problem with competition is that at the Jot level, everything is based on honesty and trust, and so, if competition is based on the Octagons you have, phimmers (cheaters) will win every time. This will be all the more terrible if there are prizes or other rewards offered. One way to counteract this problem is to have any actual competition done on a level playing field, with mechanisms to equal things out. But on another level, I have to question whether or not I even want such a consensual world. On a Pavilion/Revolver level, competetive games are very much alright. As well, when you have something called "Little World of Racetracks", you bloody well better have racing happening at some level. (I'd rather not use the British term "bloody", but I couldn't find an acceptable American alternative. OK?) Octagon is a goal, and it having meaning in a specific world is good. One observation I have that may be germaine here is that when I was an adolescent, I never really played role-playing games, but I had all the books, and I made characters, and I was always keeping up with the whole thing. It was the same with Magic": The Gathering--I onlty played it one time, but I've gotten some cards, read the magazines, and have generally kept up wth the whole thing. So, I wonder if there is any value to the idea of creating a character and stuff in LWOR, even if you don't actually play? Here's a side-note. I did try and join my high school Dungeons & Dragons club, but like my stint on the cross-country team, it only lasted one day. I arrived at the classroom after school with a character who was a "psionicist"--a non-official character class introduced in Dragon magazine. His attributes were all 18s, with maybe a few 17s. The Dungeon Master was more patient with me than the other players. He allowed the character as long as I lowered a few of the 18s. Very early in play, he had my character fall into a pit. I tried to climb out with my halberd, but it was no use. My character was just hopelessly stuck in this pit. And that was that. I think I showed them a Super 8mm movie I made as a class project, "The Nuclear Movie", which they thought was very weird. On well. Anyway, I want to get a grasp on the extent of Obliviana. First of all, everything in Obliviana happens, or is represented in, LWOR. And LWOR is built on the foundation of FOW. The WWW will be the main medium for Obliviana in the beginning. Each player has a Fonosta, which is their own personal "dimension" of LWOR. They do Happens in the real world, and represent these Happens as Jots in their Fonosta. 5:08 PM I am anxious to get the Core Obliviana system going so that I can begin to work on Severe Repair in earnest again. It's been a long hiatus, and I feel ready to continue with Severe Repair! 7:43 PM I just continued writing in Severe Repair, in the "Get Real Daptin" Cupline, and I finished it. I hadn't written in that Cupline for over a year. I got down stuff that had been in the back of my mind for over a year. Daptin is now back on Rillekon's Road, after destroying the "real world" he had escaped to. 8:39 PM Wow. Severe Repair and Superior (Parking) and I'm all wired and out of it. Tripping over stuff and hyper and all that. Gotta relax. Get back to the central thing here, Obliviana. 10:17 PM Okay. I have this list of 13 things. What next? The idea is that I am creating Oblivian anew. The totality that is Obliviana now will be recreated piece by piece in the new Obliviana. I do have the urge now to throw out the game aspect of Obliviana and just work on the entertainment stuff. At one level, this urge is utterly terrifying--I've worked so hard--and now I have the right system--and I don't even want it anymore! But I think I can understand it. Now that I have "arrived" at my destination, I no longer have the desire for the system. It is good, then, that the system is here, completed in that state of confusion and yearning that has been the past decade or so. So, from the standpoint of DESIRE, of EMOTION, I am right now, at this moment, no longer yearning. But from a RATIONAL standpoint, I know that I must make the Game of Obliviana a reality. This point, where I'm at now, had to come. The previous state I was in was great for development but I was really useless when it came to implementation. Not useless--since I did implement many things in many ways--but useless in terms of creating something that was appropriate for public presentation. 11:27 PM So, if I'm now able to implement, how? Go. Fonosta is very simple. It's all about content now. Tue 12/2/97 * 10:23 PM Obliviana is a game symbolized by the Obliviana Logowings, which when placed on something identify it as a part of Obliviana. A square thus identified is a Storm. The foundation of Obliviana is the Forge of Wander (FOW). It is made out of 209 Storms. 209 is the basis of Obliviana. The FOW is 11 Storms wide and 19 Storms high. The Storms of FOW are numbered from 1 to 209. Storm 1 is at the upper-left corner, and Storm 209 is at the lower-right. Storms are numbered sequentially, each one being one to the right and one down from the previous Storm. When an edge is reached, there is wraparound. Built on the FOW is the Little World of Racetracks (LWOR). Thu 12/4/97 * 11:07 PM I was just watching on Starz that movie called something like "Don't Be a Nuisuance Sipping Your Juice in the Hood". I wanted to stop watching it and start writing, but I was sort of paralyzed, smoking a cigar, uncomfortable, worrying about this new idea I had for Obliviana, whether or not I'd be able to do it. Okay. A few months ago I came up with Jot after deciding that I wanted the surface of Obliviana to be something stupidly simple and addictive. The idea was that people would get into Obliviana with something simple. Well, in my current developmental work, I again got to the same point, but via a different route. I'm trying to come up with a very simple introduction to Obliviana, as you can see above in my just-previous writing. The thing is, Jot is too complicated to be the stupidly simple Surface Obliviana. Also, Jot does not represent the core of Obliviana, which is focused on the FOW. So I want to create a very simple game based on FOW which will be very simple to introduce and also very compelling. When I last decided that I had to come up with something like this, I did manage to produce a quite awesome thing in Jot. And while Jot is absolutely a major part of Obliviana, it is not, as I said, simple enough to be the surface thing. So I want to create a game based on FOW which is very easy and which can introduce people to Obliviana. Now, I DO have the game of Obliviana Classic, which is utterly amazing, but it is also too complex and too difficult to get to people--it involves a large gameboard, cards, dice, chips, etc. So this is the challenge I have now decided to face--create a simple game based on FOW which can be easily described on my website or in a small printed piece which is strong enough to gain on its own a sizeable following. 11:35 PM FOW is a lot larger than a chessboard--3.2656 as many squares. The kind of game I seek to design is one that requires very little in the way of equipment--the way I see it, it has to involve having a FOW either on paper or on computer, where the moves are done by marking the FOW in various ways. I also thought about an idea where each Storm (square) would be .25 the diameted of a penny, and then you'd use a penny to play the game, but this would require a piece of paper on a flat surface and that's just too much. Since Fonosta, which is done in a notebook, is a big part of overall Obliviana, I think that the idea of having a FOW on paper and marking it with ink is the best mechanic here. Also, a game like this could be done on computer even without a program, through the use of graphics programs, or even possibly word processors or spreadsheets. On the analog side, FOW could be gotten in print form from Obliviana, or printed out from a computer graphic on my website, or even just using graph paper. I think it is important that Surface Obliviana be doable on computer, so that results, whatever they might be, could be easily transmitted over the Internet. Moving back a little and looking at overall Obliviana, Surface needs to be not only an introductory thing, but a thing that encodes the basic system of Obliviana in general. One idea I just had was to have a basic set of rules and then introduce FOW with various configuration and themes, to work with, figure out, etc. The hallmark idea of Obliviana is to build something up over time--your Fonosta. I have been thinking recently about Fonosta as your own personal FOW and LWOR, to build in as you please within a set of rules. It makes sense, then, that Surface should be like this, but just in a much simpler way. Another thing is that I want to retain the solitaire angle while still encouraging some level of competition. For example, you could play solitaire, and then share your accomplishments with others. An idea I just had is to fill in the FOW according to a set of rules, which would refer to the state of the board. For example, a rule might state "3 in a row vertically after two solids and one blank". This is more like a puzzle game, though, and that's not what I want. I like the idea of, even in this simple game, players keeping a piece of paper with them that has on it resources that apply to all the games of Surface they play. One element I like is to have the game tied to real time. Fri 12/5/97 * 12:02 AM Ridiculously simple. That's what I want. Idea: FOW with pattern of marks "fighting" other marked FOWs. Have a driving/road theme? Make a little map for a "car" to drive through? Drive from upper-left to lower-right? 12:21 AM Okay. I've decided that the simple game which I've been calling Surface has to be the overall game, just in a very stripped-down form. In other words, all of Obliviana is a set of expansions for the basic game. Wow. That felt good to write, to get out. Seems to be the right idea. Basic Obliviana mechanics: [1] Perform an action to get a Jot. [2] Put Jot in your Fonosta, which contains your own personal FOW and LWOR. [3] Achieve a certain goal on a Page/Racetrack segment and get an Octagon. Maybe I don't need a simple game? Maybe I can just introduce Obliviana as is? Idea: start at one point on LWOR, you can have 8 active Segments as a time, must "finish" a segment before making new ones. Finishing can result in an Octagon or not. Start on Segment/Storm 209? FOW/LWOR split--maybe have FOW relate to Stormjaunting from the start? Get all Obliviana. *OW* -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----