Hi all -
Well, it's me BlackDragon/Rhisiart/however you remember me. I stopped by the other day to check up on the RPM and found it was ending, so I figured I'd step back in - hopefully for good as I now have a lot more time to devote to recreational Internet use. I also have some suggestions to make when it comes to the new War Mill - but bear in mind that while I have tried to catch up on existing conversations, I might have missed some comments and I might forget others...so if I repeat ideas that have already stated, please remain patient with me.
Now, first of all, I think we should have a map. With numbers. (Ducks at the last minute to avoid the rotten fruit that Elro will inevitably throw.)
In all seriousness...
I like the idea of an interdimensional hub of sorts, but I see little to differentiate it from existing roleplaying forums of a similar nature. If we are going to have a new setting, I think perhaps we should think about getting larger rather than smaller. We're going back to a "War" Mill, right? Sure, roleplaying will be involved, but I'm assuming there will be some capacity for large-scale conflict. Furthermore, it sounds like we're going back to the original purpose of the old WM - to host and resolve all those silly conflicts over things like the presence of Atogs - so again, it might be a good idea to have a rather vast setting.
So. What I would suggest is this: we begin with a given city that can serve as a hub for the entire setting. This city could, perhaps, be imported from Phaema by the survivors of whatever cataclysm you're planning. Over time, the lands outside the city are revealed - and I imagine they will be legion. Here we have a magocracy at war with itself due to the divisions between the various colors of magic. Over there we have a land closer to medieval Earth; magic rarely functions and the lot of the natives isn't so great. That mountain to the north, the vast spire of rock that looms over our city, so much larger than anything found on Phaema, is home to a vast dungeon intended for use by any who prefer to go around bashing dungeons.
In fact, I would suggest we implement something rather like Rifts or Planescape or Ravenloft or some such - beyond the city there are a number of diverse domains, each with a separate government, differing laws of nature and so forth. Thus any style of roleplaying or other online gaming can and will be supported, from pulp-style adventure to Gothic horror to large military actions.
I admit this seems complicated - and whoever is responsible for maintaining the new Mill's homepage (if there is one) is likely about to faint from the idea of keeping track of it all. But perhaps they won't have to; the creators of various domains could be responsible for maintaining their own guides to said domains, which would be linked to from the main page.
I'm not sure I'm getting my concept across accurately, but hopefully you've captured the gist of it.
Oh - I saw someone express concerns over folk putting their own twist on storylines started by someone else who really doesn't want such interference. This can probably be resolved easily by allowing participants to classify their threads in one of two ways - a "closed" storyline may only be continued by existing participants, while an "open" storyline could be manipulated by just about anyone. (I don't know how difficult this would be to implement, but perhaps participants in a closed storyline could register as such, so in fact only those people could continue it. Just a thought.)
It seemed like there was something else...ah well, I'm sure it'll come back to me later on. All it all, it's good to be back, and I look forward to the new Mill.
Well, my intent has been to stray further from a "War Mill" (and you got its whole concept wrong anyway), and try to improve upon what the Role Playing Mill is by figuring out new ways to interest people in it.
Since I figure you're bound to ask anyway... The War Mill was not created with a world ripe with places to destroy. It didn't even have places. It was a bunch of people in the Rumor Mill running around saying 'I back Jake with 2343223 griffons and 2300654 tooth fairies' and so on and so forth. There were a lot of bloated numbers on all sides, people being silly (especially with the armies), and still a lot of people actually arguing about situations concerning the game. The game of Magic the gathering. War was a term I chose for the verbal/textual arguments that were sparked by my beliefs and opinions which I aired here at BD. These heated debates were taking up a large amount of the Rumor Mill (much like all the "Off topic" posts in the T1 mill now), and Innate wanted them off the Rumor Mill and in a place where those posts would be appropriate. His solution was to create a new mill, which he named the War Mill.
Unfortunately, everyone sees "War" and envisions sweeping armies causing mass destruction. From a storytelling standpoint, mass destruction kinda...well...destroys everything. As the War Mill changed slowly from debate to storytelling, it became impractical to blow things up constantly like we had been doing, which led to the whole "Dark Heart of the Wood" going rogue and blowing even more stuff up in a mockery of what had been going on before, and then having Tara come fix things as a representation of saying "Hey, we can't go on having wars anymore if we're going to tell stories."
In short, the War Mill had nothing to do with telling real stories, though stories grew in the telling.
Whoops, sorry. Over the past several years, my brain has decayed to the point where many times I can't remember what I had for lunch the other day - let alone events of three or four years ago. Plus I came in on the War Mill when its end was already imminent, so again...please be patient with me.
At any rate, my primary point - which was perhaps not expressed as well as it might have been - was that everyone has their own ideas about what the new WM should be, and a setting that is more of a unified collection of domains or planes or whatever might suit that nicely. Ultimately, of course, the choice is yours.