SUGGESTION Voluntary Connected Timeline

[Vex Kiranova]

Needless to say, I'm having a blast on this site. We're growing rapidly and there's a ton of promise for something amazing here, and one thing I've noticed a couple times jumping between threads is how interconnected NC is as a setting. By that I mean, it's huge, but it's still so small virtually any large event is going to be heard about / have ripple effects throughout the city. For me personally, it makes 'ignoring' the things that happen in other people's threads more difficult as compared to Star Wars or the other larger universes most boards have.

I was thinking, as a purely voluntary thing, we could have a community run timeline of threads that other writers can reference as they wish. Basically, we agreed on a set start date (I've been using 1/1/2081 as a start date for ease) and date each of our threads accordingly as well as list the location. Plug the dates and locations into the timeline sheet along with a link to the thread, and add a small description of anything notable that happened when the thread concludes.

More or less like the thread counter you'd put under your bio, but for Night City itself.

Here's an example:


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Date	Thread	Location
1/2/2081	In For A Penny	Laguna Bend

Characters: Vex Kiranova, @Wilma F. Darcy

Public Info: A Zetatech grav-train was boarded by two unknown individuals around two in the morning as it rounded the Laguna Bend. Two train cars were cut loose, and high-value Zetatech assets were stolen. There were no immediate deaths, but a cyberpsycho being used as a test subject by the corporation was released from its cage amidst the chaos. Dozens of grisly deaths have been reported in the area since, the victims being found stripped entirely of their skin and often partially eaten. Zetatech has done its best to cover up the murders and is actively hunting its lost property but has found little success. The two thieves are theorized to have escaped by jumping into the reservoir, and only the fact that one is a man, and one is a woman have been confirmed. Nonetheless, Zetatech is putting out feelers for anyone with information regarding their identities and will likely offer a nice paycheck to anyone with loose lips.

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Again, this would be purely voluntary, but I think it'd be nice to have something for quick reference purposes. Thoughts?

 

[Luna Rothschild]

It's an interesting idea but I think it will quickly start coming to issue when people's speed of time varies or people disagree on the order of events.

 

[Vex Kiranova]

It's an interesting idea but I think it will quickly start coming to issue when people's speed of time varies or people disagree on the order of events.

That's why it's purely voluntary. If people don't want to compromise for that shared level of immersion, then they can just ignore it, no harm no foul. In opting into it you'd be agreeing to compromise for that interconnectivity.

 

[Captain Jordan]

It's a cool idea but without automation of some kind I worry this kind of thing will just become a burden to the person maintaining it. I'll probably just put a linear timeline of threads in my character bios and let others decide where they line up from there. Night City is also big enough that not everyone will hear about everything, so some fuzzy time works better in my mind than more linear timelines.

If we were a smaller site who could tightly plot, I'd agree more with a timeline. Or were telling more cohesive stories. Within groups of writers/organizations it may make more sense to be linear with their timeline and mesh up better with this than just pure individuals, too.