Writing Prompt No stories in a SBURB (Homestuck) setting?

[TheMailman]

I’ve had an idea for a while of a type of story that I wanted to read.
If you have read the web comic homestuck, you might have had a similar idea as me. That idea being a new story, independent of the characters of the main homestuck canon. No alpha/beta kids/trolls. An entirely new world, with new kids/trolls/whatever race you decide to create, going through the process of playing SBURB.

I always thought a SBURB based Litrpg would make for a great setting for a story.

If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share them.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Did a quick google, cuz i had no idea what the fuck you were talking about, mate.

Anyway, SBURB sounds fucky and meaningless. The whole goal is basically to create new universes, but whats the fucking point in that anyway? The players are all strangers, so whats their incentive if they are the only ones who are able to survive? Everyone they ever knew or loved would be gone.

The problem here is that this works as a game, cuz we wouldn't care about loved ones dying and that's not even a factor that would be addressed in the game.

But as a novel, again there's no incentive for the players to try and survive other than simply living. And that's not enough when they have nothing much to live FOR. You gotta make everyone orphans or some shit who have no attachments to the world for this to work, and that would be a piss poor way of doing it because its so damn CONVENIENT

 

[TheMailman]

Did a quick google, cuz i had no idea what the fuck you were talking about, mate.

Anyway, SBURB sounds fucky and meaningless. The whole goal is basically to create new universes, but whats the fucking point in that anyway? The players are all strangers, so whats their incentive if they are the only ones who are able to survive? Everyone they ever knew or loved would be gone.

The problem here is that this works as a game, cuz we wouldn't care about loved ones dying and that's not even a factor that would be addressed in the game.

But as a novel, again there's no incentive for the players to try and survive other than simply living. And that's not enough when they have nothing much to live FOR. You gotta make everyone orphans or some shit who have no attachments to the world for this to work, and that would be a piss poor way of doing it because its so damn CONVENIENT

I hadn’t thought of that before. in the webcomic the narrative only worked at first because the characters were friends before going in, and most of them went in with some of their family.
It worked because the characters were caught too of guard at first to realize the weight of their situation. In a constant state of “ oh shit, gotta do this if I don’t wanna die” for the first two acts.
You made a good point in saying that it works as a game. Cause homestuck barely stayed good, and that’s because sburb itself became a background plot for the later half of the story.
thanks for the input.

Edit: I guess it would be alright as one of those lit RPG’s that are actually game worlds or the like.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Did a quick google, cuz i had no idea what the fuck you were talking about, mate.

I hadn’t thought of that before. in the webcomic the narrative only worked at first because the characters were friends before going in, and most of them went in with some of their family.
It worked because the characters were caught too of guard at first to realize the weight of their situation. In a constant state of “ oh shit, gotta do this if I don’t wanna die” for the first two acts.
You made a good point in saying that it works as a game. Cause homestuck barely stayed good, and that’s because sburb itself became a background plot for the later half of the story.
thanks for the input.

Edit: I guess it would be alright as one of those lit RPG’s that are actually game worlds or the like.

being in a constant state of panic where you don't have the time to brood on the situation at hand IS a good way of deal with it in the short-term, yes. Which is why i think it'd work best as a game. And mainly one like Minecraft, with silent players that you can project on. This takes care of any emotional aspect.

In fact, i can actually see this kind of thing happening in Minecraft as a game mode? It's really the same thing in essence, but on a much larger scale. There ARE some games that have galaxy-building aspects to it. Then there are life simulation games where you make choices for your character to decide how it lives its life.

I think that combining these types of mechanics into the setting you're talking of can actually do well if done right.